Alaska Man Alleges He Was Recruited to Run For Senate Seat

An Alaska insurance manager is claiming someone tried to recruit him to run as an independent candidate for Senate.

Matthew Salisbury told NewsNation a man with a spoofed phone number and only a first name approached him with the plan. The man promised backing from wealthy donors he never identified.

Salisbury, a former Republican U.S. House candidate, said Wednesday that he turned down the offer because he “could never verify who this person was.”

His account mirrors a New York Times report that aides, campaign lawyers, and Senate Democrats’ campaign arm helping Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign tried to recruit candidates who could siphon votes from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Peltola’s campaign and national Democrats deny the report.

Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy directed the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether these efforts broke Alaska law.

In a post on X, he said the Times reporting “substantially supports” findings from a June Division of Elections investigation.

“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” he said.

Salisbury said the call came “out of the blue” in December from a man who called himself Zane. The caller said he represented several wealthy donors who wanted to break the two-party system, Salisbury said, but he “would never tell me where the money was coming from.”

They met twice before Salisbury passed on the offer.