The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit to preemptively block certification of the Senate race in Alaska if the Republican incumbent loses while another candidate with the same name is on the ballot.
Dan S. Sullivan, the Republican senator, is in a tight reelection campaign against Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman.
The race has drawn national attention due to the presence of another Republican candidate on the ballot named Dan J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher and former U.S. Forest Service worker.
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The Justice Department is seeking to block certification only if the incumbent loses and would have won had all of Dan J. Sullivan’s votes gone to him.
In the Thursday filing, the Trump administration argued that the similarly named candidates could confuse voters under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system.
Dan J. Sullivan decided to run for office “with the intention of misleading supporters of Senator Sullivan into voting for him,” the suit reads.
“The sole purpose of his candidacy is to benefit the Peltola campaign by reducing the number of votes for Senator Sullivan,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and U.S. Attorney Bryan Wilson of the District of Alaska wrote in the filing.
The second Sullivan has said he decided to run on his own, and the Democratic Party has denied any coordination, but Republicans have pinned him as a Democratic plant to siphon votes away from the incumbent.
“Daniel J. Sullivan’s presence on the ballot threatens to mislead Alaskan citizens who want to vote for Senator Sullivan,” the suit reads.
On Wednesday, President Trump teased the last-minute suit, saying his administration wants legal options to remove Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot.
“We are looking at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the Ballot, and holding the Democrats accountable for their Election Interference, in the pursuit of Justice and Fairness,” the president said on social media.
Early voting in Alaska began Monday.
The legal challenge comes less than two weeks until the Nov. 3 election and months after the final ballot was set.
“Donald Trump knows that Dan Sullivan is going to lose the election, so now his Department of Justice is filing a sham lawsuit to overturn the will of Alaska voters and steal an election when he loses,” said Devan Barber, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Alaska election officials previously tried to remove Dan J. Sullivan from the primary ballot, but the Alaska Supreme Court let him stay after the Division of Elections initially removed him.
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