Trump calls Alaska's second Dan Sullivan a 'fraud' at gas line event

At a White House event Wednesday announcing plans for South Korean investment in the Alaska LNG project, President Donald Trump called the second Dan Sullivan in Alaska's U.S. Senate race "a disgraceful fraud" and said he was surprised courts let him on the ballot.

"You know, the Democrats put up another man in the race named Dan Sullivan. He's a fraud," Trump said. He said Democrats put the challenger, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. of Petersburg, in the race "because they know they can't win without cheating," but offered no evidence for that claim. Trump also said the challenger "was never a Republican." State records show the challenger registered as a Republican two days before he filed, and the state's candidate list identifies him as a registered Republican.

In a June 10 letter to the lieutenant governor, the challenger said he is running as a Republican and has had no contact with Mary Peltola's campaign. Peltola, a Democrat and former U.S. representative, is challenging Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, a Republican, in the Nov. 3 general election.

Trump said he believed the challenger tried to change his middle initial to S to match the senator's, and told voters to "vote for the guy with S." The challenger's initial filing used his legal middle initial, J, and asked to be listed as Dan Sullivan, according to court records. In a June 8 email, he asked to appear on the ballot as "Dan S. Sullivan," then corrected the request to "Dan J. Sullivan" within hours.

The Division of Elections removed him from the ballot June 15. It alleged his filing was intended to confuse voters, citing his late switch to the Republican Party along with his requested ballot name, his campaign website and his campaign consultant. A Superior Court judge ordered him back on the ballot June 26, rejecting the division's added eligibility requirement and finding insufficient evidence that he intended to confuse voters. The Alaska Supreme Court upheld his eligibility June 29 and returned questions about the ballot's design to the division.

He appears on the general-election ballot as "Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.," with no party listed. The senator appears as "Sullivan, Dan S. (Registered Republican) Incumbent." In the Aug. 18 primary, Peltola took 49.5%, the senator 41.4% and the challenger 2.5%.