In Alaska this election season, the biggest supporters of Dan Sullivan could be the biggest antagonists of Dan Sullivan.<\/p>\n
The field of contenders challenging Senator Dan S. Sullivan, a Republican who is up for re-election, has grown in recent days with a rather befuddling addition: Dan J. Sullivan, a former educator of no known relation, has entered the race.<\/p>\n
His arrival could cause a headache for Senator Sullivan, who is working to fend off a challenge from former Representative Mary Peltola, a well-funded<\/a> and independent-minded Democrat who says she is running on \u201cfish, family and freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Dan J. Sullivan\u2019s campaign announcement<\/a> says he is a former elementary-school teacher and bartender from Petersburg, Alaska, a small town about 120 miles southeast of Juneau known locally for its Scandinavian spring festival.<\/a> The announcement lays out no policies and does not describe his party affiliation.<\/p>\n The campaign arm of Senate Republicans, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, suggested that Dan J. Sullivan was a plant by Democrats intended to confuse voters and siphon support from Senator Sullivan, a former Marine who worked in the State Department under President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n If some voters mistakenly vote for Dan J. Sullivan thinking they\u2019re voting for Senator Sullivan, it could make the difference in a tight race, political observers said.<\/p>\n But Alaskans in both parties were skeptical it was a ploy. Alaska simply has a lot of Dan Sullivans, they said.<\/p>\n Gary Stevens, the Republican president of the Alaska Senate and a supporter of Senator Sullivan, said it was \u201cpretty unlikely\u201d that the new challenger was a Democratic plant. But he added that it was going to be a \u201ccampaign issue for the senator.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be confusing,\u201d Mr. Stevens said.<\/p>\n When Senator Sullivan was first elected to the Senate in 2014, another Dan Sullivan<\/a> \u2014 Dan A. Sullivan, who was mayor of Anchorage at the time \u2014 was also on the primary ballot<\/a> as a candidate for lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n This year, Alaska is one of a handful of states that Democrats are targeting as they try to chart a narrow path back to the Senate majority.<\/p>\n Under Alaska\u2019s election system, the top four candidates in a nonpartisan primary will advance to the general election in November. This year\u2019s primary will be held on Aug. 18.<\/p>\n Alaska has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in nearly two decades. But the state has gradually shifted toward the center in presidential elections over the last quarter-century. (President Trump carried it by about 14 percentage points<\/a> in 2024, roughly mirroring the margins he won by in Texas, Iowa and Florida.)<\/p>\n Most Alaska voters are politically unaffiliated<\/a>, and Senator Lisa Murkowski, a centrist Republican, won re-election in the state in 2022<\/a> by beating a Trump-backed rival.<\/p>\n In announcing that he was joining this year\u2019s race, Dan J. Sullivan said he had one goal: to unseat the incumbent. \u201cIt\u2019s time for Alaska to elect a Sullivan that\u2019s on their side,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n State Representative Rebecca Himschoot, an independent whose district<\/a> includes Petersburg, said Dan J. Sullivan was a popular teacher whom she had run into socially, but that she knew little about his policy preferences.<\/p>\n Nick Puglia, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement that Ms. Peltola and Senate Democrats were \u201cresorting to deceitful political maneuvers that attempt to trick Alaskans.\u201d<\/p>\n The committee said metadata in the news release announcing Dan J. Sullivan\u2019s candidacy showed that the document had originated with Amber Lee, a Democratic consultant and past supporter of Ms. Peltola.<\/a><\/p>\n Ms. Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday, nor did Dan J. Sullivan\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n A spokesman for Ms. Peltola, Harry Child, said her campaign had not coordinated with Dan J. Sullivan\u2019s. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who else is on the ballot,\u201d the campaign said in a statement. \u201cMary is going to win by building a broad coalition of Alaskans ready to take on the rigged system and put Alaska first.\u201d<\/p>\n State Representative Sara Hannan, Democrat of Juneau, said she did not think that Dan J. Sullivan was a plant. He is viewed in the region as a traditional Republican who is unhappy with Senator Sullivan\u2019s support for Mr. Trump, she said.<\/p>\n Another Democratic state representative, Genevieve Mina of Anchorage, also dismissed the notion that Democrats were trying to trick voters.<\/p>\n \u201cAlaska politics is known for being a little zany,\u201d Ms. Mina said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me that of course there\u2019d be another candidate named Dan Sullivan who would run against Dan Sullivan.\u201d<\/p>\n The two candidates\u2019 names are expected to appear on the ballot with their middle initials. Alaska Division of Elections records<\/a> show both men have filed to run ahead of a Monday filing deadline.<\/p>\n The ballot in Alaska was already expected to include some name confusion: Representative Nick Begich III, a Republican who defeated<\/a> Ms. Peltola in 2024, is running for re-election, while his uncle Tom Begich, a Democrat and former state senator, is running for governor.<\/p>\n