Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced Thursday that he is ordering an investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign after a report that it recruited a candidate with the same name as her Republican rival, Sen. Dan Sullivan, onto the ballot in an effort to dilute his votes.
The Department of Public Safety would seek to determine “whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted,” Dunleavy said in an overnight post to X. “The evidence will determine what happens next.”
Dunleavy, a Republican, referred to Wednesday’s revelations from a bombshell New York Times report as “disturbing new evidence” and said that “anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable.”
The New York Times published an explosive report detailing the campaign and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s alleged efforts to recruit a Senate candidate with the same name as incumbent, citing interviews with 12 people who were involved with or were told about the plan, or were contacted as potential recruits. The report also cited dozens of text messages among participants.
The report included information from Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, who was fired in August. Rios later contacted the Times and “retracted all statements made regarding the 2026 Alaska Senate Race,” the outlet reported.
The revelations have rocked the critical battleground race. Republicans have widely condemned Democrats for allegedly trying to manipulate the ballot, which they argue could confuse voters, and the Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block the certification of the election if the incumbent Sullivan loses.
NBC News has reached out to the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for comment on Dunleavy’s announcement.
Reached for comment Wednesday on the Times report, a spokesperson for Peltola’s campaign said the campaign “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.” The campaign also pointed to instances of Republicans allegedly propping up “spoiler” candidates.
A spokesperson for the DSCC, the campaign arm of Senate Democrats, said in a statement that the group “is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan.”
NBC News has previously reported that people who worked to recruit challenger Sullivan did not necessarily violate the law.
Following the report, President Donald Trump called for Peltola and the challenger Sullivan to be “removed from the ballot and prosecuted.”
Asked by a reporter whether he agreed that Peltola should be prosecuted, Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that “we should certainly look into whether she committed election fraud.”
“She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and it’s disgraceful,” he said later. “So whether it’s criminal or not, she certainly has committed, I think, a great moral failing, and hopefully the voters of Alaska punish her.”
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