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Report: Peltola's campaign involved in effort to recruit second Dan Sullivan for Alaska Senate race

Read the original at Toronto Star ↗
Cite

Riccardi, N., & Bohrher, B. (2026, October 28). Report: Peltola's campaign involved in effort to recruit second Dan Sullivan for Alaska Senate race. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/united-states/report-peltola-s-campaign-involved-in-effort-to-recruit-second-dan-sullivan-for-alaska-senate-race/article_4654dd2e-2917-5cb3-b45c-fce651156a4f.html

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Toronto Star · collected 2026-10-28 · by Nicholas Riccardi, Becky Bohrher

Quick Summary

The New York Times reports that Mary Peltola's campaign team attempted to confuse voters by recruiting another candidate named Dan Sullivan for Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. The campaign discussed using this strategy in text messages and successfully placed a retired schoolteacher from Petersburg on the ballot under the name Dan J. Sullivan, one of four candidates now competing in the election.
Written by AI on 2026-10-31, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Mary Peltola's campaign, running for the U.S. Senate seat in Alaska against incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan, was involved in efforts to place another candidate named Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters. According to reports from The New York Times and other outlets, text messages between members of Peltola’s team discussed recruiting individuals with the same name as their opponent. Election authorities attempted to disqualify the second Dan Sullivan but failed to do so in time for the election.

The plan also reportedly involved creating a third-party "MAGA party" to siphon votes from incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan, though this idea was eventually abandoned. The race is seen as crucial because it could determine which party controls the Senate, with Democrats currently holding 47 seats compared to Republicans' 53.

On election day and in the immediate aftermath, Republican supporters expressed concern that they might have mistakenly voted for "Decoy Dan" Sullivan instead of incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan, raising fears about potential vote confusion. The New York Times investigation also revealed efforts by a Democratic PAC to send voter guides replacing Sen. Dan Sullivan with the spoiler candidate.

Incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan has accused Democrats of engaging in election cheating, highlighting this as one of the most significant election controversies in Alaska's history.

Written for “Alaska Senate Race Controversy” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 101 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Alaska Senate Race Controversy
Politics · 102 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 25% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
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Hedges 2 of 26 claims Outlet record 66/100
CBS News
Hedges 0 of 10 claims Outlet record 65/100
CBS News
Hedges 0 of 2 claims Outlet record 65/100
Washington Examiner
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 69/100
Washington Examiner
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 69/100
CBS News
Hedges 0 of 26 claims Outlet record 65/100
Daily Mail
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 4 of 41 claims Outlet record 69/100
Fox News
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 1 of 31 claims Outlet record 68/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
4
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
25%
1 of 4 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
64/100
Toronto Star's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
102
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-31 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Toronto Star · 11445 article(s) · 28 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 28 correction(s)
2026-10-26
Correction
2026-10-24
Correction
2026-10-07
Correction
2026-09-24
Correction

Who wrote this

Nicholas Riccardi
20 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Sullivan, a key ally of President Donald Trump, is competing against Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in a pivotal contest that could determine Senate control.
🔮 "More fundamentally, the United States provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified "investigation" of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy," she wrote.
🔮 WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said Sunday that he doubted claims by his Democratic opponent that she had no idea her top political aides were involved in recruiting a retired schoolteacher also named Dan Sullivan onto the ballot to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the Senate.
🔮 It added there would be no way to do that without violating voter privacy.
🔮 It also found at least 22 are U.S. citizens, and many more may correspond to those of confirmed citizens.
🔮 It also found at least 22 are U.S. citizens and many more may correspond to those of confirmed citizens.
🔮 In Alaska, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is facing three other challengers on the state’s final ballot in a race that could determine control of the Senate — Democrat Mary Peltola, who was previously the state’s lone House member, and two candidates who have barely campaigned, including a retired school teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. Alaska Republicans have long suspected the second Sullivan of being a Democratic plant, and the Trump administration took the unusual step last week of suing to prevent certification of a possible Peltola victory until it could be determined if voters were confused. The New York Times this week reported that internal campaign texts and communications showed the Peltola campaign recruited the second Sullivan, leading the president to call for the Democrat’s prosecution and his Justice Department to issue a flurry of subpoenas in a criminal investigation.
🔮 While Trump maintains some support for his handling of the border, polling shows voters disapprove of his approach to immigration, a striking turnaround that could undermine Republican attempts to maintain control of Congress in the midterms.
🔮 The Democratic campaign for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the chamber, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
🔮 “The least competitive election of our lifetimes will lead to the least accountable and least representative Congress of our lifetimes.”
Also by Nicholas Riccardi
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 20 articles by Nicholas Riccardi →
Becky Bohrher
1 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The Democratic campaign for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the chamber, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The only article under this byline in the corpus.

Topics

Alaska Democratic JUNEAU Republican U.S. Senate

Subjects

Alaska GPE · 2× Republican NORP · 2× Dan Sullivan PERSON · 1× Democrat NORP · 1× Democratic NORP · 1× JUNEAU GPE · 1× Mary Peltola PERSON · 1× Petersburg GPE · 1× The New York Times ORG · 1× U.S. Senate ORG · 1×

Narrative

The newspaper obtained text messages between members of Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign discussing recruiting other people with the same name as the two-term Republican their candidate was running against.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-31
🔮 The Democratic campaign for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the chamber, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Claims (4 extracted, 1 hedged)

The Democratic campaign for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the chamber, The New York Times reported Wednesday. uncertain
Times → involve → chamber
The newspaper obtained text messages between members of Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign discussing recruiting other people with the same name as the two-term Republican their candidate was running against. asserted
candidate → obtain → Republican
They eventually landed on a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg named Dan J. Sullivan. asserted
They → land → Petersburg
He made it through the state’s August open primary and is one of four candidates on the ranked vote ballot for next Tuesday’s general election. asserted
He → make → election
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