Trump criticizes Murkowski after she opposes Alaska certification suit

Blanche says the lawsuit targets voter confusion over a second Sullivan

Donald Trump criticized Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska after she said the Justice Department should not have filed a lawsuit seeking to block certification of the state’s Senate race if the GOP candidate loses. Trump put out a social-media post calling Murkowski “Republicans’ Worst Senator, by far” after the senator’s Friday statement. Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the department’s case Sunday, saying on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the lawsuit was filed Friday to prevent voters from being confused by a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

Murkowski wrote on social media Friday that “Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot.” Asked Sunday about Murkowski’s criticisms, Blanche said: “We’re not saying that the federal government is going to decide who the next senator from Alaska is.”

Blanche said on CNN that the department filed the lawsuit Friday to prevent voters from being confused by a second Dan Sullivan, whom Blanche alleged had been purposely added to the ballot to take votes away from the incumbent, Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. “It’s the director of the Alaskan election process, who has said that the second Dan Sullivan is going to create confusion, is not a real candidate, and is on the ballot only to pull votes from the incumbent,” he said. Blanche said a crime could have been committed and that the Justice Department wanted to make sure that the ballots that come in are kept in a way that might allow a court to investigate further.

Blanche said the Justice Department is only asking the court to make sure that if there was confusion that led to an unjust result, the Alaskan system is able to “do the right thing.” Both Dan Sullivan candidates have their middle initial and party affiliation listed on the ballot, and Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is clearly identified as the “incumbent.”

Trump told reporters Friday that he is the one who directed the lawsuit to be filed over the ballot, which includes retiree Dan J. Sullivan Jr. in addition to Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. Dan J. Sullivan Jr. is a 69-year-old retired elementary school teacher who worked for the U.S. Forest Service before becoming an educator. In his official candidate statement, he said he decided to run because Alaska needs independent, accountable leaders. “Our democracy is strongest when voters have choices and when elections are decided by the people, not parties or government officials,” he said. “I will not stand by while professional politicians try to rig the system by intimidating regular guys like me from running for office by bullying us off the ballot.”

In a second television appearance Sunday, on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” host Margaret Brennan pressed Blanche on whether Trump directed him specifically to file the lawsuit. “I will not talk about communications that I have with the president of the United States,” he said. “I haven’t ever and I won’t ever.”

Blanche said Trump had been talking about the ballot in Alaska for months. “What he has clearly said for the past four months, five months, is that this is a travesty, and in this country we should not have a system of elections where it’s OK for someone only running with the same name to pull votes away,” he said.

Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 margin. Democrats need to pick up a net of four seats in the Nov. 3 midterms to win control of the Senate because Vice President JD Vance would serve as a tiebreaker in a 50-50 Senate. In Alaska, Democratic challenger Mary Peltola is leading the incumbent Sullivan in multiple polls.