Alaska Has Two Candidates Named Dan Sullivan Running for Senate. Here's Why That Matters.
Alaska election officials have confirmed that two Republicans named Dan Sullivan will both appear on the November 2026 US Senate ballot. One is the current senator, Dan S. Sullivan. The other is Dan J. Sullivan, a retired school teacher and former US Forest Service employee. They will compete under a voting system Alaska uses called ranked-choice voting. The Guardian
Getting to this point was not smooth. In June 2026, Alaska election officials disqualified Dan J. Sullivan from the race. Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom opened an investigation on June 8, 2026, to check whether his filing was valid. A complaint filed on June 10 said Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr. was not eligible and should not appear on the ballot. Alaska Division of Elections
But on June 29, 2026, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that Dan J. Sullivan must appear on the ballot, overturning the earlier disqualification. Ballotpedia
The primary results show why having both Sullivans on the ballot matters. With 85% of ballots counted, Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee and former US House representative, received more than 48% of the vote. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan took almost 43%. Dan J. Sullivan received 2.5%. The Guardian
To understand why this matters, it helps to know how Alaska runs its elections. The state holds what are called nonpartisan primaries, meaning all candidates appear on one ballot and voters can pick any candidate no matter what party they belong to. The top four vote-getters move on to the general election in November. In that general election, Alaska uses ranked-choice voting for congressional races. That means voters rank the candidates in order of preference, first choice, second choice, and so on. The candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and their votes get transferred to whoever those voters picked as their second choice. This keeps going until one candidate has more than half the votes. Alaska Division of Elections
The incumbent senator has spoken out about the situation. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan called challenger Dan J. Sullivan a "sham" candidate and said he was running at the urging of Democrats to confuse voters and split the Republican vote. The Guardian
The numbers from the primary give that complaint some weight. Dan J. Sullivan's 2.5% share is small, but it is about twice the gap between Peltola and the incumbent senator in the primary. In ranked-choice voting, the key question is not just who gets the most first-choice votes, but who can pick up enough second- and third-choice votes as other candidates get eliminated. If even some of the voters who pick Dan J. Sullivan as their first choice do not also rank the incumbent senator as their backup, those ballots could drop out of the count entirely, shrinking the pool of votes that determines who wins.
The broader context here is that Alaska's ranked-choice system, which voters approved through a ballot measure, has already led to results that surprised many observers. The system was meant to reduce the "spoiler" problem, where a candidate with no chance of winning still takes enough votes to change who wins. By letting voters rank multiple candidates, the idea is that even if your top pick loses, your vote still counts toward your next choice. But the system also creates new dynamics that did not exist before. A candidate who pulls votes away from a similar opponent can still affect the result even if they do not win, especially if voters' second choices are not evenly spread.
For the incumbent's campaign, the challenge is twofold. They need to unite Republican-leaning voters behind one Sullivan while making sure supporters of the other Sullivan rank the incumbent as their backup choice. For Peltola, the situation is different. Getting close to a majority in the primary suggests she has a strong base, but ranked-choice elections favor candidates who can build broad coalitions. Having a second Sullivan on the ballot adds uncertainty to how votes will shift as candidates are eliminated, and that uncertainty could help or hurt either side.
Alaska's Division of Elections candidate list for the 2026 general election lists Dan S. Sullivan as a certified incumbent Republican candidate for US Senator. Alaska Division of Elections The full four-candidate field, set after the court's ruling, will compete under a system where every ranking a voter makes can matter, and where a retired teacher's 2.5% of the primary vote may turn out to be more important than it looks.
