Alaska Democrat Senate candidate worked to recruit spoiler candidates in race: New York Times report

Top aides to Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola allegedly directed a campaign staffer in the summer of 2025 to comb through state voter rolls and track down every resident named Dan Sullivan, according to an exclusive report by The New York Times. 

The effort was aimed at finding a candidate to enter the Senate race and siphon votes away from the state's Republican incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan, by exploiting Alaska's ranked-choice ballot.

Stacking the ballot? 

Dig deeper:

In Alaska's ranked-choice voting, you list candidates from favorite to least favorite instead of picking just one. 

If someone gets more than half of the first-place votes right away, they win; if no one does, the candidate in last place is eliminated, and their votes automatically transfer to each voter's next choice until one person earns a true majority.

And since there are now two Dan Sullivans on Alaska’s ballot for the state’s Senate race, the worry is voters could choose the wrong Sullivan.

The other side:

Despite worries voiced mostly by the GOP, the state of Alaska has pushed back on this notion.

The ballot clearly marks the incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan, and that their ranked-choice voting rules already prevented this mistake from changing the outcome.

What’s more, the other Dan Sullivan switched his party affiliation from Republican to "undeclared" ahead of the election. 

Peltola denies NYT’s report

Peltola’s campaign has denied The Times’ claims, saying Republican party "has been caught multiple times propping up third party ‘spoiler’ candidates in Alaska this year and beyond." 

What they're saying:

"The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign. Like Mary, our campaign is focused on lowering costs and fixing the rigged system in DC."

Common campaign tactic

Big picture view:

Ballot stacking is a common campaign tactic and is generally considered legal, according to the Times. 

Both parties have used it in Alaskan politics. 

Local perspective:

During Peltola’s re-election campaign two years ago, Republicans backed an effort to help an inmate from a New York prison run as a Democrat on the ballot. 

That same man, Eric Hafner, advanced in Alaska’s House primary this year, despite still serving his federal prison sentence. Hafner is not scheduled for release until 2036.