Mary Peltola's campaign, Dems backed covert scheme to field spoiler candidates in Alaska Senate race: report

The campaign Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola actively participated in an effort to peel votes away from incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by recruiting namesake and spoiler candidates, according to an investigation The New York Times published Wednesday.

The covert operation, internally dubbed the "ballot composition project," allegedly involved aides from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), top campaign advisors, party lawyers and an operative who traveled across the state under assumed names.

In a series of posts on Truth Social, President Donald Trump said Peltola shouldn't be allowed to keep her name on the ballot, citing the instance as "ELECTION FRAUD."

The effort began in the summer of 2025, when a Peltola staffer was directed to comb through state voter rolls to compile a list of Alaskans named Dan Sullivan, according to the report. 

The plan worked earlier this year when Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher and left-leaning voter from Petersburg, switched his voter registration to Republican shortly before filing his candidacy in the Senate race.

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Elisa Rios, Peltolas former campaign manager who was fired in August, told the Times that while Peltola was not directly involved in orchestrating the project, she was "definitely aware."

"Alaskan voters need to know," Rios said. "There was a lot of speculation, and voters should get the full picture when making their decisions."

Rios later attempted to retract her comments prior to publication, but the newspaper noted that her initial interviews were corroborated by text messages, internal documents and 11 other sources.

Central to the plan was Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz, who allegedly traveled through Alaska using aliases such as "Zane," the report states.

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Kurtz allegedly met potential recruits at local pubs and diners, offering outside financial backing to persuade conservative and independent candidates to run and split the right-leaning vote.

"The Democrats cheated!" Trump wrote. "They found a man named Dan Sullivan, put him on the Ballot, then lied to the Court, and said they didnt know anything about it. Thats perjury. She shouldnt be allowed to run, and neither should the FAKE Dan Sullivan!" 

"Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done, A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, and Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or FAKE Dan Sullivan on the Ballot," he added.

Beyond the second Sullivan, operatives recruited other potential candidates, including drywall contractor Gerald Heikes, according to the report.

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They also allegedly successfully pressured progressive candidate David Leslie to drop out of the race to avoid siphoning votes from Peltola, paving the way for He