‘Decoy Dan’ dirty trick has sent Trump on the warpath in Alaska

October 29, 2026 — 12:43pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

No gift articles left

You've used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.

New York: It may not be a quintessential October Surprise, but a bombshell news report on the unusual ballot situation in Alaska has rocked one of the closest contests in the US midterm elections, and sent Donald Trump and his Republicans into overdrive demanding justice.

The situation is thus: voters in Alaska have four names on the ballot for the US Senate – including incumbent Republican senator Dan Sullivan, the Democratic challenger Mary Peltola and a second Dan Sullivan, who is unaffiliated. There is also another long-shot candidate named Gerald Heikes.

Republicans have tried and failed to keep the second Dan Sullivan, a retired teacher, off the ballot, arguing he was a Democratic plant designed to confuse voters and suck votes from the Republican. Democrats had denied any involvement in his candidacy.

But on Wednesday (US time), The New York Times released an investigation revealing that the Democrats had co-ordinated the ploy from the start.

The Times reported that a staffer for Peltola received “unusual instructions from top campaign aides” in the summer of 2025 (July/August) asking them to find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as possible.

The investigation found that Peltola’s team worked with people trying to recruit these Sullivans to contest the election, including a “mysterious Midwestern operative, who traversed the state using a fake name and made his pitch to would-be candidates over beers at brew pubs”.

The initiative was called the........

© WA Today