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By Marni Rose McFall
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"FAKE ALASKA CANDIDATE DANIAL J. SULLIVAN, JR., IS MISSING IN ACTION! HE HAS TOTALLY DISAPPEARED, GONE! NOBODY HAS BEEN ABLE TO FIND HIM," President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social early on the morning of November 3.
Controversy has swirled around there being two candidates in the Alaska Senate race with the same name.
Incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan is seeking reelection against Democratic challenger Mary Peltola. Also on the ballot is the independent candidate Daniel J. Sullivan.
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And the latter Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher, has been seemingly absent as of late.
CBS News reported ahead of election week that Daniel J. Sullivan had left his hometown of Petersburg earlier this week, citing multiple sources.
One Petersburg resident who is a former student of Sullivan’s told CBS News that she had seen him on a flight to Anchorage on Monday.
That was two days before Alaska’s closely contested Senate race was rocked by a New York Times investigation which reported that Democratic operatives linked to Peltola’s campaign had recruited Daniel J. Sullivan.
A Democratic Senatorial Campaign (DSCC) spokesperson previously denied any involvement in a statement to Newsweek. "The DSCC is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan," the spokesperson said.
The Peltola campaign also denied involvement, telling Newsweek in a statement, "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."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Senator Sullivan’s campaign told Newsweek that Alaskans "deserve the truth," accusing Peltola and Democrats of trying to "recruit candidates to deliberately deceive and confuse voters."
As America heads to the polls for the midterm elections, the question lingers: where exactly is the other Dan Sullivan?
This is what we know so far.
Newsweek has contacted Sullivan for comment via email outside of regular business hours.
...
On the day of the midterm elections, the whereabouts of Daniel J. Sullivan are unclear.
Illinois-born Sullivan is a registered Republican and has lived in Petersburg since 1980. He is running as an independent and said in a campaign statement that he has become "increasingly concerned that our sitting U.S. Senator has lost touch with the people he was elected to represent."
"Alaska deserves a senator who puts Alaska first," he said in that statement.
Sullivan’s campaign website states that as Alaska’s next senator, Sullivan will "focus on delivering the kind of transformative change needed to get Alaska back on track."
His campaign website links out to social media profiles on Instagram and Facebook.
The Facebook profile has 760 followers, and the last post, a link to a local news article about Alaska’s Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, is dated to September 30. The Instagram account has 125 followers and no posts.
CBS News’ report dates the reported sighting of Sullivan by a local resident to Monday 26th.
It is unclear if there have been any further sightings of the former teacher.
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Nick Sortor, a conservative influencer who has ties to the Trump administration, has posted about the independent Senate candidate’s absence on X.
In a post on X on November 1, Sortor said that he had staked out Sullivan’s house for more than two days, and that he "couldn’t detect even the slightest movements in the house."
Sortor’s post said that Sullivan had gotten on a flight, similar to what CBS News had reported, and alleged that this came after Sullivan caught "wind of the BOMBSHELL story about his recruitment to run for Senate to confuse voters—despite being holed up in his house for the ENTIRE rest of the election."
Responding to speculation around his candidacy being fake, Sullivan told HuffPost in October, "How could I be a fake Dan Sullivan? That is my real name!"
And sentiment surrounding Sullivan is mixed.
In a separate post, Sortor spoke to local residents who he identified as "direct neighbors," of Sullivan’s.
The neighbor said that Sullivan was a Democrat and had previously supported Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
And it has been widely reported that there have not been traditional campaign materials like mailers or signs circulated by the candidate, which is consistent with his lack of social media postings.
Andrew Worhatch, a Petersburg fisherman, told CBS News that "I don’t think it’s a serious candidacy."
However, this doesn’t mean that Sullivan is entirely without his supporters.
Local resident Keely Hankins told CBS News, "I’ve known Dan for a long time. I know his family. I know he’s raised good children," and said that Sullivan was the only candidate capable of representing southeast Alaska.
'I might be having a brain freeze'
Some support, though, may be unintentional.
Both names of the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan and the independent candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan, will appear on the ballot, differentiated by their middle initial and by the word "incumbent" next to the senator’s name.
...
But this already appears to be confusing voters.
In live footage captured by News Nation at the polls, Greg Martone, an Alaskan voter realized that he may have voted for the wrong Dan Sullivan.
"I don’t remember seeing the other Dan Sullivan; I totally forgot to look for two Dan Sullivans," he said. "I might just be having a brain freeze, but I don’t remember the second Dan Sullivan."
It was not immediately clear who Martone, who intended to vote for the incumbent senator, voted for.
Senate race tightens
Alaska is now heading to the polls for election today, as the closely watched Senate campaign comes to a close.
The final polls showed Peltola leading the incumbent Sullivan, but by a narrower margin than earlier in the month, by 48 percent to 46 percent in a *New York Times/*Siena poll of 610 likely voters released on Sunday and conducted between October 23 and October 30.
A previous New York Times/Siena poll, released on October 3, had given Peltola a wider margin, with 50 percent of the vote to Sullivan's 43.
Early voting had surged ahead of the elections, with more than 58,000 ballots cast as of October 28, according to data from the state's Division of Elections.
That figure already surpassed the amount seen during the state’s 2022 midterm and is set to meet or exceed the record early turnout seen in the 2024 presidential election.
The midterm elections could go on to reshape the balance of power in Washington.
But it could be hours, days, or perhaps even weeks before the result is projected after the polls close.
Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Robert Greenall and Ben Kelly
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