Trump says he will campaign in Alaska for Sen. Dan Sullivan

President Trump says he is coming to Alaska to campaign for Sen. Dan Sullivan. He told Republican lawmakers at a White House dinner Wednesday that a second candidate sharing Sullivan's name could cost him the seat, and that a candidacy like that "should be illegal."

The primary explains the trip at least as well as the name does. The Division of Elections certified the Aug. 18 count on Aug. 31: Mary Peltola 82,244 votes, Dan S. Sullivan 68,726, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. 4,107, and David B. Leslie, a Fairbanks Democrat, 1,850. Peltola finished 13,518 votes ahead of the incumbent senator.

How much that predicts is another question. About 156,927 Alaskans voted in the primary, a little under half the 338,177 who turned out for the 2024 presidential election, and primary electorates are not general electorates. Alaska has gone Republican in every presidential race but one since statehood, and Trump carried the state in 2024 with 54.5 percent to Kamala Harris' 41.4 — a wider margin than 2020, a narrower one than 2016.

Trump had one detail wrong. He described the namesake challenger as running for the Democrats. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg, filed as a Republican, though he appeared on the primary ballot without a party listed while the senator appeared as a Republican. Trump's estimate of the challenger's support was close: 4,107 votes is 2.6 percent.

November's election uses ranked choice voting. A candidate needs a majority, and if nobody clears 50 percent plus one on first choices, ballots for the last-place candidate transfer to whoever those voters marked next. That is the mechanism Trump was describing when he said a few points could decide it.

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled June 29 that the challenger belonged on the primary ballot and left it to the Division of Elections to decide how he would be listed. The division has not published a sample ballot for November; it usually posts one about 50 days out.

Sullivan's campaign calls the candidacy a sham meant to confuse voters and help Peltola. The challenger disputes that, saying he is running because he is dissatisfied with Sullivan's record over the past 12 years.

Trump said he plans to focus on about 35 races in the final 30 days. The election is Nov. 3.