The Trump administration filed a lawsuit to block certification of Alaska’s Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan lost the race. another candidate of the same name is on the ballot, kicking off what many feared could become a long battle between the U.S. government and the states to certify an election where the president’s party is in trouble.
Many in both parties believe the fight could come in Alaska, where Sullivan faces Democrat Mary Peltola. Also on the ballot in Alaska is one Daniel J. Sullivan from the small fishing community of Petersburg. He said he decided to run alone, but Republicans claimed he was a Democratic mill designed to siphon votes from their candidate.
The Justice Department on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Alaska demanding that the state be blocked from certifying a Peltola victory if the other Sullivan remains on the ballot. “The United States therefore brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate elections in Alaska,” the lawsuit claims, asserting that federal law requires states to protect the integrity of federal elections.
The Alaska Supreme Court rejected previous Republican efforts to remove Sullivan from the ballot, and state Republican officials made the decisions on how to put him on the ballot. The other Sullivan will appear without a party designation next to his name, while the senator will be listed as the Republican incumbent. Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system will also allow voters to select both men if there is a mix-up.
Trump’s Justice Department is increasingly being used to support the president’s political operations, targeting his enemies and filing lawsuits against Democratic-controlled states in the run-up to elections. Democrats and many voting rights advocates have long feared that the Trump administration would try to block certification of the election. The president’s party would lose badly as Trump unsuccessfully tried to do when he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Earlier Thursday, Blanche told reporters that was unlikely outside of extreme circumstances. “It is not the intent of the DOJ and it is never our intent to inappropriately interfere with elections or the state certification process,” the attorney general told reporters in Virginia.
Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the lawsuit would likely only go into effect if Republicans narrowly lost the Alaska Senate race and that it did not appear to have legal merit. “The law simply does not allow the Department of Justice to require certification,” he said.
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