Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has ordered the state Department of Public Safety to investigate whether an alleged effort to place a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the U.S. Senate ballot violated Alaska law, escalating a controversy that has moved from a newspaper report to state investigators and federal prosecutors five days before the November 3 midterm elections. In a statement on Thursday, October 29, Dunleavy said he was directing the department to determine whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted.
Source: Governor Mike Dunleavy, statement on X, Oct 29, 2026 (quoted in Fox News reporting)
“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 evidence will determine what happens next,” Dunleavy said. “Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support. Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections.” No charges have been filed against anyone, and the investigation announced on Thursday is an inquiry into allegations — not a finding that any law was broken.
Source: Governor Mike Dunleavy, statement on X, Oct 29, 2026 (quoted in Fox News reporting)
What The New York Times reported
The governor's order follows a New York Times report published Wednesday, October 28, which said — citing 12 sources and text messages and documents — that people connected to Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign, her lawyers and senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee helped recruit a second Dan Sullivan to enter the race against the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan. The Times described an internal effort it called a “ballot composition project” that sought candidates who shared the incumbent's name. Reports on the story say veteran Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz contacted the second Sullivan about running.
The second Sullivan is Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, a small fishing community in Southeast Alaska, who entered the race as a Republican in May. He is a different person from Senator Dan S. Sullivan, who is seeking re-election. Both names appear on the November 3 ballot alongside Peltola and the candidate Gerald Heikes, which is exactly the situation Republicans say was designed to confuse voters and siphon votes from the incumbent in one of the tightest Senate races in the country.
The federal investigation is moving at the same time
The Justice Department has also reportedly begun issuing subpoenas tied to a criminal probe of the race, according to ABC News reporting on October 29 citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. The subpoenas reportedly target Democratic officials believed to be connected to the recruitment effort. The department has not publicly confirmed the subpoenas or named anyone who received one. Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a Fox News interview on Wednesday, called the alleged effort “cheating” and “fraud” and said, “I expect you're going to hear more from the Department of Justice this week as we learn more information.” President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for Peltola to be criminally charged over the report.
Source: ABC News and Associated Press reporting, Oct 29, 2026 — DOJ subpoenas in the Alaska Senate probe
Separately, the Justice Department this week dropped its opposition to Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee joining its existing federal lawsuit over the race, and said it will seek expedited discovery from the campaign in that case. That lawsuit asks a judge to hold up certification of the result if Senator Sullivan loses but would have won with Daniel J. Sullivan's votes counted differently. A federal judge is expected to rule on the certification suit before Election Day.
What everyone accused says
Peltola's campaign denies any involvement in recruiting the second Sullivan and denies wrongdoing. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has said it was not involved with Daniel J. Sullivan. Daniel J. Sullivan himself has denied being recruited by Peltola's campaign or having contact with it about his candidacy, according to Associated Press reporting. Election-law scholar Rick Hasen has said it is hard to see how recruiting a candidate, even with impure motives, becomes a crime, and the Times itself noted that so-called ballot stacking — encouraging a same-name or spoiler candidate — is common in American politics and generally legal, and that both parties have used it in Alaska.
Source: ABC News and Associated Press reporting, Oct 29, 2026 — DOJ subpoenas in the Alaska Senate probe
Alaska's Division of Elections had earlier ruled against Daniel J. Sullivan's candidacy, applying what a Superior Court judge later called a “good faith” standard found nowhere in state law. The Superior Court ruling, affirmed by the Alaska Supreme Court, put the retired teacher back on the ballot. Dunleavy said the new reporting substantially supports the Division's earlier findings, which is why he has now asked state investigators to examine the recruitment effort itself.
Why this race matters beyond Alaska
Alaska's Senate seat is one of a small number that could decide control of the U.S. Senate after November 3, which is why a state-level ballot dispute is now drawing a governor's investigation order, a federal criminal probe and presidential attention in the same week. Early voting is already under way in Alaska — roughly one in ten registered Alaskans had already cast a ballot when the story broke, according to one published estimate — so any court or investigative development now lands while votes are being cast, not before voting begins. For immigrant and diaspora voters across the United States, including Alaska's small Punjabi community, the case is a live test of how far campaigns may legally go to shape a ballot, and how quickly election disputes can move from news reports to subpoenas.
What happens next
Three tracks now run in parallel into Election Day. The Department of Public Safety investigation Dunleavy ordered will examine whether the alleged recruitment violated state law and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted; no timeline for it has been announced. The Justice Department's subpoenas and its expedited-discovery push in the certification lawsuit continue this week, and a federal judge is expected to rule on that suit before Tuesday. And on November 3, Alaska voters choose among Senator Dan S. Sullivan, Mary Peltola, Daniel J. Sullivan and Gerald Heikes — with the size of the second Sullivan's vote likely to be scrutinised whatever the result.