Judge rules Alaska Senate candidate with senator’s name can stay on ballot

A state judge ruled that Dan J. Sullivan Jr., a retired Petersburg teacher who shares a name with Alaska’s incumbent U.S. senator, can stay on the Republican primary ballot, even as election officials warned the race could mislead voters.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews overturned the June 15 decision by Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, who had disqualified Sullivan from the August 18, 2026, primary after finding his filing was not in good faith and appeared intended to confuse or mislead voters. Matthews rejected that reasoning, saying the agency could not enforce a good-faith requirement that was not grounded in the Constitution, Alaska statutes or election regulations.

The dispute centers on a Senate race that already has unusual ballot mechanics. Alaska will use its top-four primary system on August 18, with the four highest vote-getters advancing to the November 3 ranked-choice general election. Officials said ballots had to begin printing at noon Tuesday, a deadline that made the case urgent and raised the odds of an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court.

The other Dan Sullivan, Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, first took office in 2015 after winning election in 2014 and won re-election in 2020. He is seeking a third term. Dan J. Sullivan announced his campaign on May 29, saying he was dissatisfied with the incumbent, and later asked to be listed as “Dan S. Sullivan,” a request that intensified suspicions among state officials and the senator’s allies.

The Alaska Republican Party and the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed complaints challenging the candidacy. Election officials also pointed to the similarity between Sullivan’s campaign website and the incumbent senator’s as part of their argument that the filing could confuse voters. The challenge has become a test of how far states can go to protect ballot integrity when a candidate shares a prominent name with an officeholder.

For Alaska, the ruling leaves the name issue in place on a ballot that will already ask voters to navigate two election systems in a single race. The decision puts the burden on election officials to ensure that voter information is clear enough to distinguish between the two men before ballots are printed and mailed.