Something fishy is going on in Alaska ahead of the midterms, but it has nothing to do with the state's famous seafood and everything to do with two men with the same name.
asserted
it → go → name
Two Dan Sullivans are running for the US Senate on November 3.
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Sullivans → run → November
One is Dan S Sullivan, Alaska's Republican incumbent who is seeking a third six-year term.
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who → seek → term
The other is Dan J Sullivan Jr, a retired elementary-school teacher who entered the race in May.
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who → retire → May
When the two appear together on the ballot in print, Daniel J Sullivan is listed first, with no party designation, followed by Dan S Sullivan, registered Republican incumbent.
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Sullivan → appear → Sullivan
"They [the Democrats] found a guy named Dan Sullivan.
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They → find → guy
They put him up to get [voters] a little confused," he said at a rally for the Alaskan incumbent in mid-October.
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he → put → October
This week, he directed the Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race if Republicans do not win Alaska, believing Daniel J Sullivan is a "decoy" aimed at siphoning votes away from the Republican candidate.
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Sullivan → direct → candidate
Republicans argue voters intending to vote for Dan S Sullivan may confuse him with Dan J Sullivan and accidentally select his name on the ballot.
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voters → argue → ballot
Some Alaskans have dismissed the notion, arguing they are smarter than the Grand Old Party (GOP) gives them credit for.
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Party → dismiss → credit
The bizarre issue, which has been playing out for months, deepened on Wednesday, local time, when The New York Times reported the campaign of rival Democrat candidate in Alaska, Mary Peltola, had recruited Dan J Sullivan in an effort to dilute the GOP vote.
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campaign → play → vote
Both Ms Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) have denied participating in such efforts.
Dan J Sullivan has insisted he is running in good faith, saying his namesake is "making decisions that I don't think are necessarily moving our state forward".
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I → deny → state
He has, however, acknowledged that having the same name as the incumbent has been a boon for his campaign.
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having → acknowledge → campaign
"I knew that my name recognition would get me immediate publicity," he told The New Yorker in August.
"
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he → know → August
It's succeeded beyond my wildest hopes."
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It → succeed → hopes
The Alaskan campaign has now kicked up a debate about ballot stacking tactics, widely-watched US Senate races and Republican allegations of election interference just days before the midterms.
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campaign → kick → midterms
Back in May, the battle of the Dans came to a head when a top state elections official ruled Dan J Sullivan ineligible for the primary ballot.
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Sullivan → come → ballot
The official concluded Dan J Sullivan's declaration of candidacy was filed "with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot's fairness or neutrality".
But the Alaska Supreme Court later overturned the decision, ruling he was qualified to run after finding the decision to strike him from the ballot was unlawful.
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decision → conclude → ballot
"It's all because of my name, and you know, there's nothing I can do about my name," Dan J Sullivan told a local news outlet after the decision.
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Sullivan → know → decision
"I was frustrated.
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I → frustrate → ?
I felt it's time for a change, and so I wanted to jump into the race and make my feelings and my thoughts known …
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feelings → feel → race
They tried to make it more than that, and you know, that's their prerogative."
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that → try → that
It isn't the first time a candidate has run against a namesake in the United States, nor is it the first time Dan S Sullivan has run against another of the same name.
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Sullivan → run → name
When the Republican first ran for Senate in 2014, he appeared on the same ballot as Dan A Sullivan, the mayor of Anchorage, who had run for lieutenant governor.
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who → run → governor
But Republicans think the presence of Daniel J Sullivan, whom they refer to as "Decoy Dan" or "Fake Dan", on this year's ballot is a Democratic dirty trick.
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they → think → ballot
That is despite Alaska's ranked-choice voting system making the situation "better for the Republican incumbent," according to David Smith, associate professor of American politics and foreign policy at the University of Sydney's US Studies Centre.
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situation → rank → Centre
"If [someone] wanted to vote for Dan Sullivan but didn't know which one to vote for … as long as they put both of them above the Democrat [candidate], then Dan Sullivan is going to end up with the vote," he added.
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he → want → vote
"So it's really hard to see how this could unfairly change the election result at all."
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this → see → result
Democrats accused of ballot stacking
Alaska is considered a high-stakes midterms race, and Ms Peltola, a Yup'ik Alaska Native and former congresswoman, hopes it will form part of next week's blue wave predicted by some pollsters.
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it → accuse → pollsters
If successful, she would become the first Democrat in nearly two decades to represent the state in the Senate.
"
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she → become → Senate
We've seen increasingly … that Democratic candidates seem to be competitive in states that went heavily for Trump in 2024.
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that → see → 2024
And Alaska is one of those states," Dr Smith said.
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Smith → say → states
But Ms Peltola's campaign was rocked by The New York Times report suggesting that since the summer of 2025, her team had tried to recruit a Dan Sullivan to run for Senate.
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team → rock → Senate
Elisa Rios, Ms Peltola's former campaign manager and longtime aide, who was fired amid a staff shake-up in August, told the newspaper the DSCC had introduced the Peltola campaign to a political operative and Ohio native named Jerid Kurtz.
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DSCC → fire → operative
At a later meeting, this aide said he had recruited a Dan Sullivan who he described as "amenable to running if it would help Ms Peltola", the Times reported.
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Times → say → Peltola
Dan J Sullivan and Ms Peltola did not respond to the ABC's requests for comment.
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Sullivan → respond → comment
The tactic of selecting rival candidates with the same name to run, referred to as ballot-stacking, has, according to Dr Smith, been used by both parties in the past, and is generally considered legal.
Political parties may also seek candidates who appeal to a similar group of voters as the main rival, or stoke confusion to potentially influence the outcome of a close race.
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who → select → race
Dr Smith said the tactic was used by Republicans during the 2024 campaign in Alaska when the GOP fought to keep another Democrat on the ballot who was actually in prison in New York at the time.
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who → say → time
Steve Jarding, a former communications director for the DSCC, told top political website The Hill that ballot stacking was normal when he was at the Senate committee in Washington.
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he → tell → Washington
During a campaign stop in Soldotna on Friday, Ms Peltola labelled the Times report a "distraction".
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Peltola → label → report
…and 21 more, not listed.
The Aporia
