Trump Says He Ordered DOJ Lawsuit to Block Alaska Senate Certification if Sullivan Loses
Seven Lights
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Alaska’s election officials seeking to block certification of the state’s Senate race unless Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan wins, The Hill reported. President Trump said Friday that he directed the department to bring the case. “I’m the one who said do it,” Trump told reporters, according to The Guardian and The Hill.
The suit claims that voter confusion resulted from the parallel candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who also ran as a Republican, against the incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, The Hill reported. The filing alleges that the sole purpose of the other Sullivan’s candidacy was to help the Democratic nominee, former Rep. Mary Peltola, The Guardian reported. The department asked a court to suspend certification pending an investigation into the race, The Hill said.
The relief sought is conditional: the suit would only take effect if Dan S. Sullivan loses and would have prevailed under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system had votes for the other Sullivan gone to him instead, The Guardian reported. The filing came less than two weeks before the 3 November election, and control of the Senate could hinge on the Alaska contest, which polls have shown to be tight, The Hill said.
Legal experts told The Guardian the case was weak. Derek Mueller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, called the suit “absurdly thin” with “basically no chance of success”, the paper reported. CBS News aired an analysis in which a legal expert examined the effort to block certification of the Alaska Senate election if the Republican loses. The New York Times covered the filing as the Justice Department moving to block certification of the race in which Peltola faces Sullivan, and NBC News reported on the administration’s intervention in the state’s election.
The Guardian noted that Alaska has used ranked-choice voting since 2020, and that the suit does not allege fraud against Peltola but rather confusion caused by the similar name. Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment from The Guardian. The BBC reported the case sharpened questions about federal intervention in state-run elections weeks before voters go to the polls.