Trump calls for Mary Peltola to quit Senate race and face prosecution
President Trump has called for Alaska Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola to withdraw from the race and be criminally prosecuted, after a report that people aligned with her campaign recruited candidates to draw votes away from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Trump made the remarks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, after The New York Times reported that Peltola’s allies had worked to recruit another man named Dan Sullivan to run for the Senate seat.
“Mary Peltola should resign from the race. I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did,” Trump said.
In a subsequent post on his social media account, Trump accused Alaska Democrats of placing the other Dan Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters. He also called for that candidate to be prosecuted.
“This is voter fraud at the highest level, and the Dumocrat candidate, who was involved in the scheme, Mary Peltola, should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted. So should the fake Dan Sullivan. Nothing else will do!” Trump wrote.
The Times reported that a Peltola campaign staffer was instructed in the summer of 2025 to find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as possible. The staffer searched voter records and compiled a list of people with that name, according to the newspaper.
The senator, Dan S. Sullivan, faces a four-person ballot that includes Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from a small fishing village in southeastern Alaska who announced his candidacy this spring.
The Times reported that people aligned with Peltola’s campaign also sought to recruit other candidates who could draw votes away from the Republican senator.
Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, told the newspaper that Peltola was not directly involved in the effort but was “definitely aware” of it. Rios was fired during a campaign staff shake-up in August.
Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee denied participating in efforts to recruit spoiler candidates, the Times reported. The newspaper said its investigation was based on interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign.
The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit last week, at Trump’s request, seeking to block certification of the election results if votes for Dan J. Sullivan cost the incumbent senator the race.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
