The US Justice Department is seeking to invalidate Alaska’s Senate election results if the Republican incumbent loses next month, in a rare legal move that raises questions about the Trump administration’s willingness to accept defeat in the midterms.
President Donald Trump tried to overthrow the 2020 presidential election in which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump won Alaska by 13 percentage points in his 2024 comeback election. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the Justice Department alleged that Republican Dan J. Sullivan Jr., who is running for the Senate, could confuse voters intending to support the incumbent senator, who is also Republican and is also named Dan Sullivan. “Given the substantial likelihood that the inclusion of Daniel J. Democrats have accused the Trump administration of seeking to influence the November vote by expanding federal control over state-run elections and by repeatedly questioning the integrity of election results. But amid growing discontent with Republicans and Trump nationwide, Mary Peltola, a former tribal judge and Alaska Native, has a strong chance of winning the Senate seat.
Sullivan will confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a vote for Senator Sullivan… there is a substantial likelihood that a certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that lacked integrity,” the agency said in its lawsuit. Speaking to reporters earlier in the day on Thursday, US Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested the Justice Department was not preparing to interfere in the election, but at the same time would not completely rule out such a scenario.
