Alaska's 2026 U.S. Senate race has a problem most ballots never face: two candidates named Dan Sullivan.
One name, two candidates
An Anchorage Superior Court judge ruled that Dan J. Sullivan — a retired teacher and former U.S. Forest Service employee in his late 60s from the fishing town of Petersburg — may appear on Alaska's primary ballot alongside the incumbent he shares a name with, two-term Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, the Anchorage Daily News reported. (Neither is the former Anchorage mayor Dan Sullivan, yet another Alaska Republican — the state has more than one.)
How it got to court
State election officials had tried to keep the challenger off the ballot. The Division of Elections disqualified Dan J. Sullivan in mid-June, with its director concluding his candidacy lacked "good faith" and seemed designed to confuse voters, according to CBS News. The Alaska Republican Party and the national Senate GOP campaign arm went further, alleging Democrats had recruited the challenger to splinter the Republican vote and aid Mary Peltola, the Democratic former congresswoman seen as the senator's strongest potential opponent. The challenger and Peltola's campaign denied any coordination.
The judge's reasoning
The judge overturned the disqualification — not by vouching for the challenger's motives, but by finding the state had no legal basis to exclude him. The "good faith" standard the elections director applied was "unlawful," the judge wrote, because it rested on a criterion found nowhere in the Alaska Constitution, state law or the division's own regulations, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The U.S. Constitution sets just three requirements to run for the Senate — age 30, nine years a citizen, and residency in the state — all of which the challenger meets. The judge also found no real evidence that he intended to mislead voters.
Why Alaska's system makes it matter
The stakes are sharpened by Alaska's unusual election rules. The state uses a top-four open primary, in which all candidates run on one ballot regardless of party and the top four advance to a ranked-choice general election. That means a second Dan Sullivan isn't just a branding headache for the incumbent — he competes for the same votes, and even a small share drawn by name recognition could reshuffle who advances to November.
What's next
The state signaled it would appeal, and the Alaska Supreme Court was set to take up the case quickly, with ballots due to the printer within days. The challenger, who registered as a Republican before filing, says he is running on his own merits. Whether Alaskans will be able to tell the two Dan Sullivans apart is now, improbably, a live question in the race.
