A federal judge has thrown out the Trump administration’s attempt to block Alaska from certifying its US Senate race if the Republican incumbent loses, dealing a fresh blow to the White House’s efforts to assert a greater federal role in elections just two days before voters go to the polls.
US District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled in Anchorage on Sunday that the Justice Department’s lawsuit failed because the government could not show it had standing to bring the case, and because its proposed remedy was unworkable. The department had asked the court to bar certification of a victory by Democratic challenger Mary Peltola if votes for a second candidate with a near-identical name could have changed the result.
At the heart of the dispute are two men called Dan Sullivan. The incumbent senator, Daniel S. Sullivan, is seeking re-election, while a retired teacher from the remote fishing village of Petersburg, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., is also on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate. The Justice Department, which filed the suit on 22 October, argued that the retired teacher was running with the intention of misleading supporters of the senator into voting for him, and that certifying the election could breach the federal government’s duty to protect election integrity.
Gleason rejected that approach. She found that segregating ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan so investigators could question voters about whom they intended to support would violate Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot. “The United States provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified ‘investigation’ of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy,” she wrote.
The ruling is the latest setback for President Donald Trump’s push for greater federal oversight of elections, which are administered by the states under the US Constitution. The administration has pressed states for voter-registration data and argued that stricter measures are needed to ensure public confidence in the vote, a campaign that critics, including Democratic and some Republican election officials, describe as federal overreach.
Trump has said he personally ordered the lawsuit. He has also called for Peltola to face criminal prosecution, and the Justice Department has stepped up a criminal investigation into the alleged recruitment of the second Sullivan. Peltola has denied any involvement in recruiting him, telling a rally she was “not interested in tricking voters”, and her campaign called the lawsuit meritless. The retired teacher has denied aiming to cause confusion, though he has said he would prefer Peltola to win.
The race matters well beyond Alaska. Democrats need a net gain of at least four seats in Tuesday’s midterms to take control of the Senate, and the Alaska contest could prove critical to whether Trump’s fellow Republicans hold the chamber. Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, has ordered a separate state investigation and has indicated the result may not be certified depending on its outcome — a prospect the judge’s ruling does not itself resolve. Justice Department lawyers are expected to appeal.
One claim in this story rests on a single source and is flagged as such: the report that Peltola campaign staff worked with a Democratic operative to find a second Dan Sullivan comes from The New York Times and has not been verified by Reuters.
Sources: Reuters, “US judge dismisses Trump election lawsuit in Alaska”, 1 November 2026, via https://duke.fm/2026/11/01/us-judge-throws-out-trump-election-lawsuit-in-alaska/ ; and Associated Press, “Judge tosses Trump’s attempt to block Alaska Senate results if GOP incumbent loses”, 1 November 2026, via https://www.whro.org/2026-11-01/judge-tosses-trumps-attempt-to-block-alaska-senate-results-if-gop-incumbent-loses
