Alaska Senate Candidate Dan J. Sullivan Switches to Undeclared Status

Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg will enter the general election as an “undeclared” voter, a status that functions as a type of independent. According to records from the Alaska Division of Elections, the switch from Republican to undeclared occurred when Sullivan requested an absentee ballot for the August primary election.

Sullivan had previously changed his registration to Republican in June when he filed for the Senate seat. Before that, he was a member of the Alaska Independence Party, which dissolved earlier this year, leaving him as a political independent.

Ballot Listing and Polling

On the general election ballot, the candidate is listed as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” without a party label. This differs from the listing for the incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan, who is listed as “Dan S. Sullivan (Registered Republican) Incumbent.”

man with grey curly hair — Photo: alaskapublic.org

Current polling shows that Democratic challenger Mary Peltola and incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan are well ahead of Republican challenger Gerald Heikes and Dan J. Sullivan.

Legal and Political Challenges

The Alaska Division of Elections initially rejected Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy, citing his Republican status as part of a claim that he was not running in good faith. That decision was later reversed by the Alaska Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit last week against the Alaska Division of Elections. The lawsuit seeks to pause the certification of the Senate election unless the incumbent wins, arguing that the federal government can intervene because the two similarly named candidates could confuse voters.

Alaska Senate Candidate Dan J. Sullivan Switches to Undeclared Status — Photo: yahoo.com

President Donald Trump and other Republicans have accused Dan J. Sullivan of running a sham campaign to damage the incumbent’s re-election chances. Sullivan has responded that he is running to provide Alaskans a different option because he is dissatisfied with the incumbent.

Candidate Response to Status Change

When first asked via email last week about the party switch, Sullivan denied requesting it. However, Division of Elections spokesman Steve Kirch provided a copy of the absentee ballot request form on Monday showing that Sullivan had listed his affiliation as “undeclared.”

Following this, Sullivan stated by email,

“holy cow … I did! – I can only guess I was thinking that since they didn’t affiliate me on the ballot, I should go with that, but to be honest with you, I am frazzled by all of this.”