A Democratic strategist who publicly championed Mary Peltola's Alaska Senate bid authored the campaign press release for a second "Dan Sullivan", a candidate whose entry into the race Republicans say is designed to siphon votes from the incumbent GOP senator.
Campaign metadata reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation listed Amber Lee as the author of the press release announcing Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Lee has been a vocal supporter of Peltola, the Democratic candidate in the race, and told The Hill in January that the former congresswoman had "a real chance" to win.
The finding raises a pointed question: why would a Democratic operative be writing campaign materials for a candidate ostensibly running as a Republican challenger, unless the goal was never to win, but to confuse Alaska voters staring at two nearly identical names on the ballot?
Dan J. Sullivan, from Petersburg, Alaska, filed to launch his candidacy days after Peltola visited his hometown on May 28. His campaign announcement, posted at sullivanforsenate.com, accused the sitting senator of having "failed to put Alaska first."
The language sounded like standard insurgent-Republican fare. But the metadata told a different story. Lee, not some unknown local volunteer, was embedded in the document's authorship data.
Lee's ties to the Democratic side of this race are not subtle. She told The Hill in January that Peltola was "the first time since Sullivan took office that he's really facing a real challenger." She added: "It's going to be a hard race, but... I believe there's a real chance for her to win this." In March 2025, Lee said she hoped Peltola would run for governor because she believed the Democrat would be best able to "protect" the state from President Trump's administration.
When the Anchorage Daily News reached Lee for comment on the metadata revelation, she offered two words: "not commenting."
Lee and the Dan J. Sullivan campaign did not respond to the DCNF's requests for comment either.
Federal Elections Commission records add another layer. Dan J. Sullivan donated $650 to Democrats nationwide, including to Peltola herself and Illinois candidate Kat Abughazaleh. That is the candidate whose press release was written by a Democratic strategist, donating to the very Democrat he would supposedly be competing against.
Meanwhile, the Washington Times reported that Dan J. Sullivan recently switched his party registration to Republican shortly before filing. The incumbent's campaign also alleges the challenger's logo closely mirrors Sen. Sullivan's own branding, including similar colors, font style, a dark blue background, and star imagery.
The tactic is not new. In a 2014 Texas GOP lieutenant governor primary, Breitbart reported that Democratic-aligned trial lawyers and donors financially backed Republican Jerry Patterson and an anti-Dan Patrick PAC, with Patterson himself admitting his opposition research came from "a very well-known elected Democrat in Harris County." The playbook, use friendly candidates and outside money to fracture the other party's vote, has a long, bipartisan history. But the Alaska version is especially brazen because the spoiler candidate shares the incumbent's exact name.
Alaska's ranked-choice voting system allows multiple candidates from both parties on the same ballot, making name confusion a genuine threat to voter intent. Two Dan Sullivans appearing side by side could split the incumbent's support, handing an advantage to Peltola without her campaign lifting a finger.
Sen. Sullivan's campaign is not treating this as a minor annoyance. Spokesperson Nate Adams told the DCNF:
"Mary Peltola and D.C. Democrats know they can't win this race on the issues, so they've resorted to dirty, dishonest tactics, recruiting a sham candidate with the sole purpose of deceiving voters and manipulating Alaska's election system."
Adams added that the campaign views the situation as a direct threat to voter confidence and is exploring every available legal remedy.
"This blatant attempt to confuse and disenfranchise Alaskans undermines confidence in our elections, and if allowed to stand, will deny voters the honest choice they deserve. We are reviewing all of our legal options and aren't ruling anything out."
The National Republican Senatorial Committee went further, sending a formal letter to Alaska Lieutenant Governor Carol Beecher, who oversees the state's division of elections. The letter argued that Dan J. Sullivan must be removed from the ballot to protect election integrity laws. NRSC regional press secretary Nick Puglia told the DCNF:
"Mary Peltola and Chuck Schumer are resorting to deceitful tricks because they know they can't beat Dan Sullivan on his record. But Alaskans are smarter than Peltola thinks, and their scheme isn't going to work."
Sen. Sullivan himself framed the matter in blunt terms to the Washington Times: "You have the right to run for office, of course, but you don't have the right legally if your primary goal is to confuse people and rig the election for another candidate."
Election integrity has become a defining issue for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterms, with the Senate pushing the SAVE America Act through weekend votes at President Trump's urging.
Peltola's campaign told the DCNF it has "no involvement with either Sullivan campaign." That denial will face scrutiny given the metadata evidence and the timeline: Peltola visited Petersburg, Dan J. Sullivan's hometown, on May 28, just days before he filed his candidacy.
Whether Peltola herself knew about the arrangement or not, the facts trace a line from her most prominent public supporter directly to the spoiler candidate's campaign launch. That line runs through metadata, FEC donation records, and a conspicuously timed visit to a small Alaskan town.
Broader efforts to force Democrats on the record regarding voter ID and election integrity have gained momentum precisely because of episodes like this one, where the mechanics of an election appear to be gamed from the inside.
The stakes in Alaska are high. An Alaska Survey Research poll from May 26 found Peltola leading Sen. Sullivan by five points, 48.4% to 43.8%. Peltola has also dominated the fundraising battle, raking in nearly $8.7 million directly to her campaign account over the first quarter of the year. She had approximately $5.7 million in cash on hand after spending nearly $3 million during that period.
Sullivan raised $1.7 million in direct contributions over the same quarter and held more than $7 million in his war chest at the start of April. The gap in new fundraising is significant, but Sullivan's accumulated reserves keep him competitive.
The broader 2026 Senate landscape features tight races across multiple states, and Alaska's ranked-choice system already complicates the math for Republicans. Sen. Lisa Murkowski used that same system to defeat Trump-backed candidate Kelly Tshibaka in 2022, a result that still stings on the right. Adding a name-twin spoiler to an already complex ballot could distort outcomes in ways no voter intended.
Alaska's division of elections has not publicly responded to the NRSC's letter demanding Dan J. Sullivan's removal from the ballot. The specific legal provisions cited in that letter, if any, remain unclear. And the Sullivan campaign has not yet specified which legal options it is pursuing.
Those are open questions. But the metadata is not ambiguous. A Democratic strategist who publicly backed Peltola wrote the press release for a candidate designed to split the Republican vote. The strategist won't comment. The candidate won't respond. And the campaign that stands to benefit says it had nothing to do with it.
Concerns about political manipulation of election rules are not hypothetical when the evidence sits in a document's metadata, waiting for someone to look.
If Dan J. Sullivan remains on the ballot, Alaska voters will face two candidates with functionally the same name, one a sitting senator, the other a recently registered Republican with Democratic donation records and a campaign press release authored by a Democratic operative. The ranked-choice system will do the rest.
Republicans now have to decide whether legal action can remove the spoiler before ballots are printed, or whether they'll be forced to run an expensive voter-education campaign just to make sure Alaskans know which Dan Sullivan is which.
When you can't win on the merits, apparently, you find someone with the right name and hope nobody checks the metadata.