Secret Scheme To Sabotage GOP Senator Revealed After Democrat Denied Involvement: REPORT
Former Democratic Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola's campaign reportedly plotted to sabotage Republican Alaska Sen. Dan S. Sullivan's reelection bid by recruiting a candidate with the same name, The New York Times reported Wednesday
Nicole Silverio·Oct 28, 2026·6 min read
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Former Democratic Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola’s campaign reportedly plotted to sabotage Republican Alaska Sen. Dan S. Sullivan’s reelection bid by recruiting a candidate with the same name, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Peltola’s team actively searched for other Dan Sullivans to be on the ballot in November to boost the Democrat’s chances of winning, a review by the Times found. An operative introduced by aides from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) made secret trips to Alaskan communities while using a fake name and pitched his idea to would-be candidates over beers at brew pubs.
Peltola’s campaign lawyers and senior aides at the DSCC participated in regular conversations about the effort and considered forming a new political party to draw conservatives to the ballot, according to the Times.
The Times interviewed 12 people over the past two months who participated in or were told about the plan. It obtained dozens of text messages that provided updates on the effort.
The DSCC introduced a veteran Democratic operative named Jerid Kurtz to members of former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios and former chief of staff Anton McParland, according to the Times. Kurtz informed the team during a video call that he made contact with the other Sullivan, who lived in the village of Petersburg. He said the other Sullivan hated President Donald Trump and expressed his willingness to help Peltola win.
“Alaskan voters need to know,” former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios said. “There was a lot of speculation, and voters should get the full picture when making their decisions.”
Rios was fired in August amid a staff-shakeup. She retracted her statements on the matter shortly before the report’s publication.
Kurtz reportedly spoke on the phone with a Peltola campaign aide to say he had just arrived in Petersburg, according to the Times. Some Peltola aides worried the public would find out about their efforts, such as when he posted a photograph of the Anchorage airport on his Instagram account.
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Secret Scheme To Sabotage GOP Senator Revealed After Democrat Denied Involvement: REPORT — IJR
Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Matthew Salisbury of Anchorage told the Times that he got a call from an unfamiliar number with an Ohio area code. The person, who identified himself as Zane, met with him at a pub and urged him to run for Senate. When the Times showed Salisbury a photograph of Kurtz, Salisbury confirmed that Kurtz was the person in question.
Peltola’s campaign denied having any involvement in the other Sullivan’s campaign, telling the Times they did “not recruit any candidates into the race.” The DSCC said it had “no involvement” in recruiting any Republican candidates.
A Sullivan campaign spokesperson told the DCNF that Peltola and her campaign “spent months gaslighting Alaskans.”
“Alaskans deserve the truth. Mary Peltola, her campaign, and her senior advisors colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers, and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit candidates to deliberately deceive and confuse voters, and then repeatedly lied about it,” the campaign spokesperson told the DCNF. “Not one player in this operation has acted in good faith with Alaska voters. Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along. We always knew this was a concerted effort to deceive Alaskans, and Mary Peltola was hoping it would stay covered up until after the election.”
Peltola’s campaign staff had dinner with Jim Lottsfeldt, a local political consultant, according to the Times. Lottsfeldt agreed to financially help the long-shot Senate candidates with outside spending, given that he works with super PACs aligned with Peltola. Lottsfeldt denied any knowledge or involvement in the effort.
Filings from The Alaska Values PAC, a super PAC supporting Republican Alaska Senate candidate Gerald Heikes, show that Lottsfeldt requested advertising time from Alaska radio stations in October. He did not explain to the Times why his name showed up in the filings.
“These forms have auto-whatever, it’s quite possible that my name was on it from a blank form and then it got moved over,” Lottsfeldt said. “Even if I had requested some time, OK, so what? There’s nothing illegal about that, there’s nothing suspicious about that.”
Text messages showed that members of the DSCC and Peltola’s campaign considered creating a MAGA Party, although the plans never came to fruition, according to the Times.
Former schoolteacher Dan J. Sullivan entered the race in June, despite having no political experience. Democratic strategist Amber Lee authored a press release announcing the other Sullivan’s candidacy, metadata reviewed by the DCNF showed.
Lee told The Hill in January that she believed there was a good chance Peltola could defeat Sullivan. In March 2025, Lee said she hoped Peltola would run for governor because she believed the Democrat would be best able to “protect” the state from President Donald Trump’s administration.
“It’s the first time since Sullivan took office that he’s really facing a real challenger,” Lee said. “It’s going to be a hard race, but … I believe there’s a real chance for her to win this.”
Peltola will be the only Democrat on the ranked-choice ballot. The other Sullivan changed his party affiliation from Republican to unaffiliated Monday, eight days before the general election, according to the Alaska Beacon, a local outlet. He donated $650 to Democrats nationwide, including Peltola and left-wing failed Illinois House candidate Kat Abughazaleh, according to Federal 🗳️Elections Commission (FEC) records.
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Friday to block Alaska’s Senate results if the incumbent senator loses.
Former Democratic Alaska Senate candidate David Leslie told the Times that Kurtz urged him to drop out of the race after advancing to the general election. Kurtz reportedly told Leslie he was “proud” of his decision to leave the race in a text message.
Alaska’s open voting system made this scheme possible, given that candidates can claim any party affiliation on the ballot without being vetted by parties themselves, according to the Times. Republicans backed an effort to help a candite serving time in a New York prison stay on the ballot when Peltola ran for reelection to the House in 2024.
Division of 🗳️Elections Director Carol Beecher informed Sullivan in an Aug. 26 letter that his declaration of candidacy “was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy,” but rather to confuse voters into voting for the wrong Sullivan. After Sullivan appealed the ruling, Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled he could remain on the ballot for the state’s primary.
The Alaska Supreme Court overturned that ruling in a June 30 decision and allowed the other Sullivan to be on the ballot. The DSCC and Peltola’s campaign celebrated the high court’s decision, according to the Times.
Peltola visited the other Sullivan’s hometown on May 28, days before he filed to launch his candidacy, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
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