Peltola finished first in primary as GOP court bid against challenger failed

Former Anchorage mayor Dan A. Sullivan has endorsed Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan in Alaska’s Senate race, backing the senator over a challenger who shares the same name.

Dan A. Sullivan, who served as Anchorage mayor for six years beginning in 2009 and sat on the city’s governing assembly from 1999 to 2008, wrote on the day of the 18 August primary: “As the OG Dan Sullivan, I urge Alaskans to vote for [Senator] Daniel S Sullivan. He’s been great for Alaska.” “OG” is a colloquial term meaning original. It was unclear whether the former mayor claimed to be the original because, at 75, he is older than both the senator, 61, and the challenger, 70, or because he entered his first elected office before the senator did.

The challenger, Dan J. Sullivan, is a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher and US Forest Service employee with no prior political experience. He appeared on the primary ballot with no party affiliation and advanced from the 18 August primary into a four-candidate general-election field that also includes the senator, former Alaska Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola, and one other contender. Peltola finished first in the primary. The general election is scheduled for 3 November.

President Donald Trump weighed in on social media on primary day, writing: “ALASKA: Be careful. VOTE FOR THE REAL DAN SULLIVAN TODAY. The Dumocrats know how good he is and have put up an imposter of the same name.” Separately, according to projections cited by The Guardian, Republicans are projected to lose congressional seats during the midterms.

The Republican Party unsuccessfully went to court to try to prevent Dan J. Sullivan from running in the primary, maintaining that his campaign was a Democratic-engineered sham intended to confuse voters into selecting him rather than Alaska’s junior senator since 2015. The challenger’s name appeared on the primary ballot consecutively to the incumbent’s, feeding Republican warnings about voter confusion.

Dan J. Sullivan has denied running at the behest of the Democratic Party, which has not held a Senate seat in Alaska since 2008. “This is my choice,” he said to the Associated Press in June. Adding that he was displeased with the state of affairs in the US, he told the outlet: “I have every right to run.”

Three men named Dan Sullivan now occupy distinct roles in the contest — the senator seeking a third term, a challenger running without party affiliation, and a former mayor backing the incumbent — leaving Alaska voters with a ballot that features multiple identical names.