Alaska Senate Race to Include Two Candidates Sharing Same Name

A retired teacher named Dan Sullivan, who finished third in Alaska's all-party primary, will appear on the November ballot alongside Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola. The challenger, a Trump critic, secured a spot under the state's top-four primary system, which uses ranked-choice voting in the general election. The incumbent's allies have accused Democrats of using the name similarity to confuse voters, a claim Peltola's camp denies.

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Alaska's top-four primary system, adopted by voters in 2020, allows the top finishers regardless of party to advance to the general election, where ranked-choice voting determines the winner. The challenger's 3,600 primary votes were sufficient to secure ballot placement, and even a small share of the final vote could influence the outcome if no candidate secures a majority on the first count.

The ballot will distinguish the two men by listing the incumbent as Dan S. Sullivan and the challenger as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation noted. A third Dan Sullivan, former Anchorage