President Trump says Mary Peltola should be barred from Alaska’s Senate race and prosecuted after a New York Times report on a decoy “Dan Sullivan” recruitment effort Democrats deny.

President Trump moved quickly on Wednesday after a New York Times report detailed how Democratic operatives pushed extra candidates onto Alaska’s Senate ballot, including a man named Daniel J. Sullivan, in a bid to scramble votes against incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Trump said former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) should not be allowed to run, called the episode election fraud, and demanded that both Peltola and the second Sullivan be taken off the ballot and prosecuted. The race is rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, and the Justice Department has already sued to stop certification of the results if the incumbent loses because two Sullivans appear on the ballot.

The Hill reported that Trump framed the recruitment push as a deliberate cheat aimed at the Alaska contest he and Vice President Vance have backed in person.

On Truth Social, Trump wrote that Peltola should be blocked from the race after what he called a “terrible scheme.”

“In Alaska, I don’t think Mary Peltola, after perpetrating such a terrible scheme, should be allowed to run, because this is ELECTION FRAUD,” Trump posted.

"The Democrats cheated! They found a man named Dan Sullivan, put him on the Ballot, then lied to the Court, and said they didn’t know anything about it. That’s perjury. She shouldn’t be allowed to run, and neither should the FAKE Dan Sullivan!"

Speaking with reporters, he repeated the demand in plain terms.

"I think the fake Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola, number one they should be taken off the ballot, and number two they should be prosecuted,"

Trump has not hesitated to call for hard consequences when he sees misconduct or leaks that put American interests at risk, including public demands for severe accountability in other national-security fights.

New York Times report maps the spoiler push

The Times account, as summarized in campaign coverage, said Peltola campaign aides, the campaign’s lawyers, and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee staffers took part in efforts to recruit additional candidates. One of those names was Daniel J. Sullivan, a second “Dan Sullivan” whose presence on the ballot could siphon support from the Republican incumbent by confusing voters who see the familiar name.

Breitbart reported Trump’s charge that Democrats “illegally searched for, and recruited” the namesake candidate and that he views the tactic as “voter fraud at the highest level.”

The same coverage notes the practice has long been used by both parties and is generally treated as legal political hardball, even when it looks like ballot clutter designed to muddy a close race. That legal gray zone is exactly why Trump’s call for removal and prosecution lands as a demand for accountability rather than a settled criminal finding.

Peltola’s campaign rejected the core accusation. Alaskans for Mary said it had “no involvement with either Sullivan campaign,” insisted it “did not recruit any candidates into the race,” and said the campaign is focused on “lowering costs and fixing the rigged system in DC.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also denied involvement, according to the reporting trail surrounding the Times story.

DOJ suit and a judge’s expedited clock

Before Trump’s latest remarks, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit seeking to block Alaska from certifying the Senate contest if the incumbent loses, pointing directly at the two Sullivans on the ballot. Peltola’s campaign asked the judge to dismiss the case. The judge then put the litigation on a faster track.

That sequence matters. Federal lawyers are already treating the dual-Sullivan ballot as a live threat to a clean result. Trump’s demand that Peltola and the second Sullivan be stripped from the ballot sits on top of that open case, not in a vacuum. Voters still face a toss-up race while courts sort the paperwork.

Administration litigation wins on enforcement rules have been part of the broader pattern of using federal authority to keep elections and agencies inside clear lines, as when the Ninth Circuit backed Trump against California’s ICE agent ID restrictions.

Alaska’s governor opens a criminal probe

The pressure did not stop in Washington. The New York Post reported that Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered Alaska’s Department of Public Safety to investigate whether the recruitment effort broke state law and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted.

Dunleavy put the directive in writing.

"I am therefore directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted."

The Post account also tied the scandal to the Times reporting that described Peltola as “definitely aware” of the recruitment work. That claim, if sustained by investigators, would undercut the campaign’s clean hands posture. For now it remains part of the published narrative under review in Juneau, not a final verdict.

State-level probes of election conduct sit alongside federal fights over who stays in the country and who faces removal after due process, including high-profile ICE cases that ended in deportation.

What Trump says the scheme was designed to do

Trump’s argument is straightforward. Democrats, he says, found a man named Dan Sullivan, put him on the ballot, then told a court they knew nothing about it. He calls that perjury. He calls the whole play election fraud. He wants Peltola and the “FAKE Dan Sullivan” off the ballot and in the dock.

Whether a court ever adopts that framing is an open question. The underlying Times reporting, as relayed in multiple outlets, presents the recruitment work as real. The campaign and the DSCC deny they ran it. The Justice Department is already in court over certification. Alaska’s governor has now ordered a criminal review. Those are four separate tracks pointing at the same messy ballot.

Trump has also shown he will use clemency and personnel power when he believes the justice system or an agency has lost the plot, including decisions that freed convicted figures after years of disputed prosecutions. Here the demand runs the other way: investigate, remove, prosecute.

Close race, crowded ballot, unfinished fight

Sen. Dan Sullivan remains the Republican incumbent. Mary Peltola, a former Democratic House member from Alaska, is the main challenger. Daniel J. Sullivan is the extra name that turned a two-person fight into a ballot puzzle. Cook Political Report still rates the seat a toss-up.

Trump and Vance have already traveled to Alaska to campaign with the incumbent. The president’s latest statements raise the stakes from a normal midterm scrap to a test of whether a spoiler name, recruited with help from campaign and party staffers, can stand once it is exposed in national reporting and state investigators are told to dig.

No court has ordered Peltola or Daniel J. Sullivan removed as of the latest accounts. No criminal charges have been filed in the governor’s new probe. The DOJ certification suit is active and expedited. The campaign’s denial is on the record. Trump’s position is also on the record, repeated in writing and to reporters: off the ballot, and prosecuted.

Calls for personnel changes inside Trump’s own orbit have come from allies as well as critics when trust breaks down, including public pressure over who should stay in senior national-security posts. In Alaska the target is a Democratic Senate candidate and a decoy namesake, not a Cabinet officer.

Alaskans deserve a Senate ballot that reflects real choices, not a maze built to trick them at the polling place. When operatives seed a second “Dan Sullivan” and then plead ignorance, voters are right to demand answers, and leaders are right to insist the law come first.