The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit to block Alaska from certifying its Senate election results in the event that Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola. This move is the Trump administration’s most blatant effort to swing ballots in Republicans’ favor this November.
The lawsuit alleges that the Senate election should be nullified if Sullivan loses because there’s another “Daniel J. Sullivan” on the ballot also running as a Republican, and the Trump administration thinks voters will be too confused—even though Dan Sullivan is properly listed as the incumbent on the ballot.
“Daniel J. Sullivan decided to run for Senator in 2026 as a Republican with the intention of misleading supporters of Senator Sullivan into voting for him,” the DOJ lawsuit alleges. “The sole purpose of his candidacy is to benefit the Peltola campaign by reducing the number of votes for Senator Sullivan.”
The lawsuit raised alarm across the political sphere.
“Surprising that the president who tried to end American democracy and stay in power even though he lost is queuing up additional ways to try to end democracy in America,” the Center for American Progress’s Bobby Kogan mused online.
“Election Day isn’t the end of the fight,” the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson wrote. “Get ready to get loud.”
“Trump isn’t going to try to interfere in the midterms, he’s already getting started,” chimed journalist Pedro L. Gonzalez. “They’re going to do this everywhere they think they can get away with it.”
This lawsuit comes just a day after Attorney General and former Trump personal attorney Todd Blanche admitted that he was open to blocking states from certifying elections. Now his DOJ is attempting to do just that.
Again, it is extremely abnormal for the Justice Department to be involved in election certification.