By Jan Wolfe
Oct 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday sued to block Alaska’s US Senate race certification if the Republican party loses, citing candidate name confusion.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Anchorage, said Alaska “will fail in its obligation to protect the integrity of its election” if it certifies “any electoral results tainted by the inclusion on the ballot of Daniel J. Sullivan,” a Senate candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan.
The unelected Sullivan, a former US Forest Service worker and elementary school teacher, filed to run as a candidate on May 29 seeking to unseat Senator Dan S. Sullivan and “put Alaska first,” according to his campaign website, which advertised “Dan Sullivan Challenges Dan Sullivan for US Senate Seat.”
Dan J. Sullivan has denied in interviews with US news outlets that his aim is to cause confusion or divert votes from Dan S. Sullivan.
Polling has shown Democratic candidate Mary Peltola tied or slightly ahead of incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in a state the president carried by some 14 percentage points in 2024. In Alaska, as in much of the US, Trump’s approval rating is underwater, hit by rising diesel and gasoline prices and a conflict in the Middle East that has proven deeply unpopular with voters.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe, Daphne Psaledakis, and Ismail Shakil; editing by Susan Heavey, Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)
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