Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan Meets His Match: Another Candidate Named Dan Sullivan

Republican Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan is facing a challenger with the same name in the upcoming Senate race.

The senator is running against Dan J. Sullivan, a former elementary school teacher and bartender, who claimed in his campaign announcement that the senator has “failed to put Alaska first.” The new candidate could be a thorn in the side for Sullivan, who is already facing a competitive challenge against former Democratic Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola.

The other Sullivan did not mention a party affiliation and did not lay out any policy proposals.

“For too long, Senator Sullivan has failed to put Alaska first,” Sullivan said. “When you truly care about a people and a place, you have a duty to make every sacrifice within your power to protect them. That’s why I’m running.”

Sullivan suggested that Dan J. Sullivan is a plant by Democrats with the intent of causing confused voters to pick the wrong Sullivan. Gary Stevens, the Republican president of the Alaska Senate, cast doubt that the other Sullivan is a Democratic plant, though he stated that having two candidates with the same name will be “confusing,” according to The New York Times.

Nick Puglia, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told the Times that Peltola and Senate Democrats were “resorting to deceitful political maneuvers that attempt to trick Alaskans.”

When Sullivan was first elected to the Senate in 2014, another Dan Sullivan, who was mayor of Anchorage at the time, was also on the primary ballot as a candidate for lieutenant governor, the Times reported.