The campaign for Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola was actively involved in an effort to peel votes away from incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by recruiting namesake and spoiler candidates, according to an investigation by The New York Times.
The operation, internally referred to as the "ballot composition project," reportedly involved aides from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), campaign advisors, party lawyers, and an operative who traveled the state under assumed names.
The effort began in the summer of 2025 when a Peltola staffer was tasked with compiling a list of Alaskans named Dan Sullivan from state voter rolls. This plan reportedly led to Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher and left-leaning voter, switching his registration to Republican shortly before filing to run in the Senate race.
Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, stated that while Peltola was not directly involved in orchestrating the project, she was "definitely aware." Rios's comments were reportedly corroborated by text messages, internal documents, and other sources, despite an attempt to retract them.
Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz allegedly traveled through Alaska using aliases such as "Zane" and met potential recruits at local establishments, offering financial backing to persuade conservative and independent candidates to run and split the right-leaning vote. Gerald Heikes, a drywall contractor, was among the potential candidates recruited.
Operatives also reportedly pressured progressive candidate David Leslie to withdraw from the race to avoid siphoning votes from Peltola, which would allow Heikes to secure the fourth spot on Alaska’s ranked-choice ballot. The campaign advisers and the DSCC had also considered creating a "MAGA party" to siphon votes from the incumbent senator, but abandoned the idea in May.
Jacquelyn Lopez, an attorney with Elias Law Group representing both the DSCC and Peltola's campaign, was reportedly involved in discussions about the third-party strategy and field operations.
Peltola's campaign issued a statement to The New York Times asserting that "The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race." The DSCC similarly stated it had no role in recruiting either Dan J. Sullivan or any other Republican candidate.
In a statement to Fox News, the DSCC denied involvement with Dan J. Sullivan and pointed to Republicans' alleged tactics, stating, "Republicans have a long history of recruiting and propping up candidates in an attempt to boost their own campaigns — including recruiting a prisoner with a New York address to run against Mary Peltola and spending nearly half a million dollars to secure a spot on the ballot in Alaska for an Arizona resident in the Senate race this cycle."
The White House responded to the report by Communications Director Steven Cheung on X: "BREAKING: Democrats' secret, CORRUPT plan to stack Alaska's ballot EXPOSED!"
The report emerged shortly before Election Day, amidst a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block the election's certification if the incumbent Sullivan loses due to voter confusion over the two identical candidate names. Under Alaska's four-person general election system, Peltola is the sole Democrat on the ballot, facing off against Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, Dan J. Sullivan, and Gerald Heikes.