Judge rejects lawsuit seeking to halt Alaska Senate election certification amid ‘Decoy Dan’ controversy

OAN Staff Lillian Mann
2:36 PM – Sunday, November 1, 2026

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the administration of President Donald Trump aimed at blocking the certification of Alaska's United States Senate election results if the

Republican incumbent loses amid controversy over a second "Dan Sullivan" on the ballot.

The ruling comes after reports emerged that Alaska Senate candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. — who shares a name with incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) — fled his hometown as U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge Matthew Schlegel accelerated their investigation into whether the retired schoolteacher was recruited by the campaign for Senate candidate Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) to pull votes away from the incumbent.

In a ruling issued Sunday, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason held that the federal government lacks the legal authority under the National Voter Registration Act to bring the suit. The lawsuit had sought to block state officials from certifying the election results, allowing time to investigate whether voters were confused by two candidates with nearly identical names on Alaska's ranked-choice ballot.

Judge Gleason concluded that issuing such an order would likely violate voters' right to a secret ballot.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), however, confirmed it intends to appeal the decision after the court dismissed the case without addressing its merits.

"The court dismissed the case on procedural grounds but did not dispute the argument of the United States that Daniel J. Sullivan (a/k/a Decoy Dan) entered the race as a frivolous candidate to confuse voters," the department told Fox News. "DOJ plans to file a notice of appeal. Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes."

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump released a statement via Truth Social on Sunday, stating that the "fake Dan J. Sullivan Jr." has "DISAPPEARED."

"The Fake Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr., has DISAPPEARED! Nobody can find him, including Law Enforcement," Trump wrote. "He knows that he committed a Criminal Act, but he also knows that there are those around him who, in a certain way, were far worse, like Lawyer Marc Elias, and Liberal Radical Left Activist 'Lawyer' Norm Eisen. Others that are really bad, and corrupt, in so many ways, include Political Activists and Lowlives, Reid Hoffman, and Neville Roy Singham. These are CRIMINALS who totally abuse the Laws of our Land, and are destructive to our Country at levels never thought possible before."