{"id":869604,"date":"2026-06-15T20:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/869604\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T20:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:47:24","slug":"us-senate-candidate-with-same-name-as-incumbent-ineligible-for-alaska-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/869604\/","title":{"rendered":"US Senate candidate with same name as incumbent ineligible for Alaska ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) \u2014 A top Alaska elections official on Monday ruled that a U.S. Senate candidate with the same name and party affiliation as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan<\/a> is ineligible to appear on the state\u2019s August primary ballot.<\/p>\n

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, in a letter sent to the challenger Sullivan<\/a>, said she concluded that his declaration of candidacy \u201cwas not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot\u2019s fairness or neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenger can appeal the ruling, she said, while noting ballots are due to be printed June 28.<\/p>\n

A text message seeking comment from Sullivan, the challenger, was not immediately returned. He previously said he anticipated making a decision on whether to pursue an appeal by early this week.<\/p>\n

In a social media post Sunday, he said he \u201cmet the qualification and I entered this race because I am unhappy with the 12 year record of the current Senator and I feel we need a change. It\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a whirlwind chain of events in one of the nation\u2019s most prominent U.S. Senate races<\/a>, one both parties consider crucial to controlling the chamber.<\/p>\n

The kerfuffle was set off by the challenger Sullivan filing days before the June 1 candidate deadline. Sen. Sullivan and Republicans called him a \u201csham\u201d candidate and alleged he was working with Democrats to boost Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola\u2019s chances in the race. Both the challenger Sullivan and Peltola\u2019s campaign have denied the allegation.<\/p>\n

Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom a week ago announced an investigation<\/a> into the challenger Sullivan\u2019s run, citing \u201ccredible allegations\u201d that he declared his candidacy \u201cin coordination with another candidate and campaign\u201d with an intent to confuse and \u201cmanipulate\u201d voters.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, a retired teacher from the small, southeast Alaska fishing community of Petersburg, has said he\u2019s done nothing wrong and insisted that Dahlstrom lacks a legal basis to exclude him from the ballot. He said in a recent interview he has been weighing a run for years and called sharing a name with Sullivan a \u201cmatter of fate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lieutenant Governor\u2019s job is to oversee elections fairly and impartially,\u201d he said in a statement last week. \u201cInstead, her actions create the impression that the state government is being used to protect an incumbent senator from facing competition at the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Sullivan\u2019s campaign manager, Billy Mackey, lauded the decision by the lieutenant governor, who oversees elections in Alaska, for upholding the right to \u201ca free and fair election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Sullivan, who is seeking a third term, and Peltola are the highest-profile candidates in the crowded race and the only ones so far to report raising any money.<\/p>\n

Democrats have targeted the seat in their push to regain<\/a> the majority in the chamber.<\/p>\n

On Friday, protesters gathered outside the Division of Elections office in Juneau, opposing efforts to remove the challenger Sullivan from the ballot. Among them was Ben Muse of Juneau. He said he felt the issue could have been addressed using middle initials to distinguish between the candidates but had been \u201cblown way out of proportion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has nothing to do with whether you support this guy as a candidate,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s supporting his right to be on the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) \u2014 A top Alaska elections official on Monday ruled that a U.S. Senate candidate with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":869605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[7373,13671,934,353971,353970,353968,26453,90,57,2055,353969,353972,50,80,53952,89,61,67,96561,132,68,333,93],"class_list":["post-869604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-2026-elections","tag-ak-state-wire","tag-alaska","tag-ben-muse","tag-billy-mackey","tag-carol-beecher","tag-dan-sullivan","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-mary-peltola","tag-nancy-dahlstrom","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-senate-elections","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-senate","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-voting","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116756090980342711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}