Sen Dan Sullivan brands Peltola’s alleged ballot scheme a ‘scandal at the highest order’

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Moriarty, N. (2026, October 29). Sen Dan Sullivan brands Peltola’s alleged ballot scheme a ‘scandal at the highest order’. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/media/sen-dan-sullivan-brands-peltola-alleged-ballot-scheme-scandal-highest-order

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Fox News · collected 2026-10-29 · by Nora Moriarty

Quick Summary

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, accused his Democratic challenger Mary Peltola of attempting to confuse voters by recruiting someone with a similar name to run against him in the U.S. Senate race. According to The New York Times, Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee secretly worked for over a year on this alleged scheme. Sullivan characterized it as a "scandal at the highest order" during an interview on Fox News' "Hannity," arguing that Democrats will do anything to gain power. He further claimed that the incident demonstrates Peltola's contempt for Alaskans and implies broader implications for control of the U.S. Senate.
Written by AI on 2026-10-29, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it +0.45, but 2 quote(s) could not be found in the article and the other 1 are attributed speech rather than the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 113704: no verified evidence · logged 2026-10-29

Story

📰 Trump Demands Ballot Changes Over Decoy Dan Scheme
Politics · 15 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 4% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Washington Examiner
⚖️ Leans strongly right Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 70/100
Reason
Hedges 4 of 19 claims Outlet record 67/100
ABC News (US)
Hedges 3 of 23 claims Outlet record 70/100
CBS News
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 1 of 2 claims Outlet record 66/100
The Guardian
Hedges 2 of 26 claims Outlet record 67/100
NBC News
Hedges 2 of 22 claims Outlet record 60/100
“The articles describe different aspects of the election dispute, with Article A focusing on a legal motion to dismiss a lawsuit and Article B on Senator Sullivan's reaction to allegations against his opponent.”
Washington Examiner
⚖️ Leans strongly right Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 70/100
“While both articles discuss allegations about a Democratic strategy involving an independent candidate with the same name as Sen. Dan Sullivan, they describe different aspects of the incident (one focuses on Democrats being accused of using a decoy candidate, while the other reports on Sen. Sullivan's reaction to these allegations).”
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ Leans strongly right Hedges 4 of 40 claims Outlet record 61/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
4%
1 of 24 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
70/100
Fox News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
15
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-29 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Fox News · 5816 article(s) · 10 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 10 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Nora Moriarty
14 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told Fox News that Democrats will do "anything" to gain power while addressing reports that the campaign of his Democratic challenger Mary Peltola secretly participated in a months-long process to recruit people with his name to run in the Alaska U.S. Senate race.
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🔮 "The kind of White folks — maybe the Democrats haven’t been able to successfully target them or give them something and they’ve since forgotten their roots, but they could be mobilized," he told the outlet.
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Also by Nora Moriarty
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 14 articles by Nora Moriarty →

Topics

Alaska Alaskans Democrats Fox News U.S. Senate

Subjects

Sullivan PERSON · 12× Alaska GPE · 9× Peltola PERSON · 7× Alaskans NORP · 5× Alaskan NORP · 4× Fox News ORG · 4× Dan Sullivan PERSON · 2× Democrats NORP · 2× Republican NORP · 2× U.S. Senate ORG · 2×

Narrative

Peltola has dismissed reports of the alleged election scheme as "just another distraction," arguing that The New York Times’ report was solely purposed to "sell newspapers." Her campaign also continues to assert innocence, previously telling Fox News in part that the Alaskans for Mary campaign "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign." Republican Sen. Sullivan called out what he described as Peltola’s hypocrisy, saying the alleged election scheme shows her "total contempt" for the people of Alaska.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-29
🔮 Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told Fox News that Democrats will do "anything" to gain power while addressing reports that the campaign of his Democratic challenger Mary Peltola secretly participated in a months-long process to recruit people with his name to run in the Alaska U.S. Senate race.

Claims (24 extracted, 1 hedged)

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told Fox News that Democrats will do "anything" to gain power while addressing reports that the campaign of his Democratic challenger Mary Peltola secretly participated in a months-long process to recruit people with his name to run in the Alaska U.S. Senate race. asserted
campaign → tell → race
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Peltola’s campaign, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, carried out the alleged election scheme in hopes that voters would be confused by two Dan Sullivans and therefore draw support from the incumbent Republican senator. asserted
voters → report → senator
"This is a scandal at the highest order," Sen. Sullivan said during an interview on "Hannity" Wednesday. asserted
Sullivan → say → Hannity
"She and her team, and at the highest levels of the DSCC, spent over a year scheming in a secret operation to trick Alaskans to get them to throw away their vote," Sullivan said. asserted
Sullivan → spend → vote
The Democrats will do anything to gain power." asserted
Democrats → do → power
The Justice Department is moving to delay certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate election results since two individuals by the name of Dan Sullivan appear alongside each other on the ballot. asserted
individuals → move → ballot
Listed on the ballot as "Sullivan, Dan S.," is the state’s incumbent U.S. senator, while "Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.," is a retired schoolteacher. asserted
Sullivan → list → Sullivan
"They've been lying for almost a year about it, and now they're caught," Sullivan told Fox News host Sean Hannity. asserted
Sullivan → lie → Hannity
Peltola has dismissed reports of the alleged election scheme as "just another distraction," arguing that The New York Times’ report was solely purposed to "sell newspapers." Her campaign also continues to assert innocence, previously telling Fox News in part that the Alaskans for Mary campaign "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign." Republican Sen. Sullivan called out what he described as Peltola’s hypocrisy, saying the alleged election scheme shows her "total contempt" for the people of Alaska. asserted
scheme → dismiss → Alaska
"She's run a campaign about supposed corruption. asserted
She → run → corruption
She's the corrupt one working with D.C. insiders to trick Alaskans," he said. asserted
he → work → Alaskans
"[Peltola and the DSCC] think so little of Alaskans that they thought they can trick them," he added. asserted
he → think → them
The Alaska senator argued that Peltola made a concerted effort to trick voters with another Dan Sullivan because her campaign had "nothing to run on." "This is what happens when you have a candidate like Peltola — far-left — who's got nothing to run on," Sullivan said. asserted
Sullivan → argue → nothing
"I have a much stronger record… asserted
I → have → record
We have a vision for Alaskans that the Alaskan people want, and when they recognize that, they're like, ’Shoot, I guess we've got to cheat.’ asserted
we → have → that
Sullivan also noted that the alleged ballot scheme does not just apply to Alaska, but to the entire country as the state’s Senate race holds significant power in determining which party will hold a majority in the Senate. asserted
party → note → Senate
"This goes to the highest levels of the government," he said on "Hannity." asserted
he → go → Hannity
"The seat in Alaska could determine who controls the United States Senate. uncertain
who → determine → Senate
Federal prosecutors are conducting an "aggressive criminal investigation" into how the second Sullivan secured a spot on Alaska's ballot, two sources familiar with the matter told Fox News. asserted
sources → conduct → News
Sullivan told "Hannity" he will do his best to inform every single Alaskan of the scheme. asserted
he → tell → scheme
"We're going to make sure every single Alaskan knows about this," Sullivan said. asserted
Sullivan → go → this
"We are campaigning 24/7, and we're telling every Alaskan, ‘Don't let your vote be stolen.’" asserted
vote → campaign → Alaskan
Fox News Digital reached out to the Peltola campaign for comment. asserted
Digital → reach → comment
Fox News Digital's Robert Schmad and Olivia Palombo contributed to this report. asserted
Schmad → contribute → report
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