Two candidates named Dan Sullivan will appear on Alaska’s Senate ballot in the coming week’s US midterm elections, drawing scrutiny to a race considered important to control of the chamber. One is the incumbent Republican senator. The other, Daniel J Sullivan Jr, is a retired teacher with no previous political experience who announced his candidacy on May 29, three days before the filing deadline.
The New York Times reported that people aligned with Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, her campaign’s lawyers and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee coordinated efforts to recruit candidates who could draw support away from the incumbent. The initiative was internally described as the “ballot composition project”, according to the report, which said a Peltola staffer was assigned to find Alaskans named Dan Sullivan. Four candidates are on the ballot.
The allegations prompted President Donald Trump to order a Justice Department investigation into alleged voter fraud. Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy also ordered a criminal investigation. On Friday, US Attorney Michael Heyman accused Democrats of organising a conspiracy to recruit and support Daniel J Sullivan as a sham candidate. The retired teacher has repeatedly denied that Democrats were behind his candidacy.
Peltola rejected the accusations and said the controversy was diverting attention from voters’ concerns. Speaking in Juneau on Friday, she said she had known nothing about any candidates other than herself and the incumbent. “I am not interested in tricking voters,” she said. The tactic at issue, commonly called ballot stacking, involves encouraging candidates to run to alter how votes are distributed and help another contender.
A Florida state Senate election in 2020 illustrates how namesake candidacies can matter in close contests. Prosecutors said Republican operative and former state senator Frank Artiles paid Alex Rodriguez to run as an independent against Democratic incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez, seeking to benefit Republican Ileana Garcia. The incumbent lost by 32 votes, while Alex Rodriguez received more than 6,000 despite conducting no meaningful campaign. Alex Rodriguez pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in 2021 and agreed to cooperate with investigators. Artiles was subsequently convicted in connection with the scheme and fined.
An effort involving Washington’s Democratic attorney general, Bob Ferguson, ended differently in 2024. Two people sharing his name entered the gubernatorial primary after a Republican activist allegedly paid them to run. They withdrew after Ferguson threatened legal action. He went on to win the governorship.
Namesake controversies also feature in accounts of John F Kennedy’s first congressional campaign. A second Joseph Russo entered the 1946 Democratic primary against Kennedy and a prominent Boston city councillor of that name. Accounts have implicated Kennedy’s campaign manager and father, although Kennedy’s own involvement remains disputed. Kennedy won 22,183 votes, compared with 6,460 for the two Russos combined.
In India, where fielding namesakes is common, the tactic has produced mixed outcomes. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi won Wayanad overwhelmingly in 2019 despite facing three namesakes. Bollywood actor and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Hema Malini also won decisively against two namesakes in Mathura in 2014.
Other Indian results show the potential significance of such votes without establishing how they would otherwise have been cast. Congress incumbent K Sudhakaran lost by 6,566 votes in 2014, while two namesakes received 2,745 and 4,240 votes. That year, BJP candidate Chandu Lal Sahu won Mahasamund by nearly 11,000 votes despite seven other candidates sharing his name collectively receiving 62,934.
