Democrat holds 17-vote lead for final spot in Alaska’s bizarre US Senate lineup

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Aug. 22, 2026 – The race for the fourth and final position on Alaska’s November US Senate ballot narrowed to just 17 votes Friday as the Division of Elections added more ballots to its unofficial primary results.

Democrat David Leslie of Fairbanks remained in fourth place with 1,502 votes, while Republican Gerald Heikes of Palmer trailed with 1,485.

Leslie’s lead was 19 votes after Thursday’s count. The addition of more ballots Friday trimmed it by only two votes.

Under Alaska’s open-primary system, the four candidates receiving the most votes advance to the November general election, regardless of party. Ranked-choice voting is then used to determine the winner.

The first three positions appear settled.

Democrat Mary Peltola remained in first place Friday with 63,910 votes, or 48.09%. Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan was second with 56,766 votes, or 42.7%.

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., known colloquially as “Decoy Dan” because his name closely resembles that of the incumbent and because his intention is to confuse voters, was third with 3,235 votes, or 2.4%.

That leaves Leslie and Heikes fighting over the final available position, although Leslie’s apparent success is not the outcome Democratic operatives appeared to be seeking.

A super PAC called Right for Alaska spent more than $1 million attacking Sen. Sullivan and promoting Heikes and Alaskan Party candidate Earl “Skip” Southworth as conservative alternatives. The group’s disclosed donor, Massachusetts resident William Harris, is a prolific contributor to Democratic candidates.

More than $410,000 was reportedly spent specifically to promote Heikes, a perennial candidate who has run for governor, Congress or the U.S. Senate in nearly every election cycle since 2014. The apparent goal was to place another Republican-labeled candidate on the November ballot who could draw conservative votes or second-place rankings away from the incumbent senator.

That strategy appears to have fallen 17 votes short, at least for now.

Leslie was also the beneficiary of unexplained outside spending. The American Democracy Project spent more than $240,000 promoting him, although Leslie said he did not know why the group had become involved in his race. One of the PAC’s major donors also said he was unaware that the group was spending money in Alaska.

If Friday’s order holds, the November ballot will feature two Democrats and two candidates bearing the Sullivan name: Peltola, Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. and Leslie.

That is far different from the lineup sought by the Democratic-funded operation promoting Heikes. Rather than inserting an additional Republican to compete for Sullivan voters, the group may have helped Heikes come within 17 votes of victory while Leslie slipped into the final position.

Decoy Dan’s third-place finish has already generated national scrutiny. The US Department of Justice has issued grand jury subpoenas as part of an investigation into whether his candidacy was intended to confuse voters. He has denied that he entered the race to siphon support from the incumbent.

Friday’s results show how Alaska’s top-four system creates incentives for outside groups to meddle in the opposing side of a race. Instead of merely supporting their preferred candidate, political organizations can spend heavily to elevate little-known candidates from the other party in hopes of engineering a more favorable November ballot.

In a conventional partisan primary, Democrats would choose their nominee and Republicans would choose theirs. Under Alaska’s system, every candidate appears on the same primary ballot, turning fourth place — even with barely more than 1% of the vote — into a potentially valuable political prize.

The count is not finished. The Division of Elections is scheduled to add another batch of absentee ballots Tuesday, Aug. 25, before final unofficial results are posted later in the week.

With only 17 votes separating Leslie and Heikes, the final position could still change. For now, however, the Democrat remains ahead — and the elaborate effort to place another Republican on the November ballot appears to be coming up just short.

Friday’s statewide totals are available from the Alaska Division of Elections.

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