By SUZANNE DOWNING
Oct. 28, 2026 — President Donald Trump called Wednesday for Mary Peltola to withdraw from Alaska’s Senate race and face criminal prosecution following a New York Times investigation linking her aides and national Democratic operatives to the recruitment of candidates intended to weaken Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“Mary Peltola should resign from the race. I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews.
The president’s remarks followed revelations that Decoy Dan Sullivan’s candidacy was part of a sweeping effort to shape Alaska’s Senate ballot in Peltola’s favor. The Times investigation challenges months of denials that her campaign had anything to do with the Petersburg former teacher.
Breaking: New York Times investigation ties Mary Peltola to Decoy Dan recruitment
The effort began in summer 2025, when a Peltola staffer was ordered to search Alaska voter records for people named Dan Sullivan. The operation eventually connected the campaign with Daniel J. Sullivan, the retired Petersburg teacher who entered the race this year.
The newspaper described an internal “ballot composition project” involving Peltola aides, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee officials and Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz. Interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign formed the basis of its reporting.
One of the central sources was Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, who was fired during an August staffing shake-up that also saw the departure of Anton McParland, her first campaign manager and chief of staff.
Rios told the Times that Peltola was was “definitely aware” of the project. Rios later sought to retract the statements; the newspaper said the account was consistent with its other reporting.
The reporting alleges her clear knowledge of the operation. The campaign continued to deny involvement Wednesday.
“The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign,” it said in a statement. The DSCC also renewed its denial to the Times.
The Times also examined efforts involving Gerald Heikes, another Senate candidate, and David Leslie, a Democrat whose withdrawal after the primary opened a general-election ballot position for Heikes. Leslie told the newspaper that Kurtz was among those who urged him to withdraw.
Heikes said a man from the Midwest recruited him, although he did not identify that man as Kurtz and said a photograph of Kurtz did not resemble the recruiter he remembered.
For readers of The Alaska Story, the investigation adds a campaign-insider account to a controversy that has been developing for months.
The other side of Mary Peltola: Former aides describe outbursts, slurs and firings
In June, the Alaska Division of Elections rejected the Petersburg Sullivan’s candidacy after concluding that his filing was intended to confuse or mislead voters. Earlier reporting documented Democratic consultant Amber Lee’s involvement, Sullivan’s contributions to Democratic candidates including Peltola, and similarities between his campaign presentation and the incumbent’s.
The Alaska Supreme Court subsequently allowed him to remain on the ballot. That ballot-access decision did not resolve the allegations now detailed in the Times investigation.
The Alaska Story also reported on the money promoting lesser-known candidates. Right for Alaska, a super PAC that previously backed Heikes, received approximately $990,000 from the progressive Sixteen Thirty Fund and $1.8 million from Liberty Force Action Fund, according to disclosures reported earlier this month. Its spending supporting the Petersburg Sullivan approached $1.15 million.
Those disclosures established progressive funding behind the outside operation, while leaving questions about campaign coordination unanswered.
The Times report arrives less than a week before the Nov. 3 election and amid a federal lawsuit seeking to block certification if the incumbent loses by a margin smaller than the number of votes cast for his namesake. Alaska officials have asked the court to dismiss that case.
Trump’s demand for prosecution is a political response to the revelations. The reporting itself does not establish criminal wrongdoing, and recruiting spoiler candidates is generally legal.
But the political question facing Peltola has become considerably sharper: How can voters reconcile her campaign’s repeated denials with the insider accounts and communications now describing its aides’ involvement?
Breaking: DOJ sues Alaska over ‘Decoy Dan,’ seeks certification delay if voter confusion tips Senate race
Democratic dark money surfaces behind ‘Decoy Dan,’, expanding on Alaska Story investigation
‘Decoy Dan’ scam exposes much wider network of political operatives and ‘nonprofit’ money in Alaska
Breaking: New FEC complaint alleges ‘Decoy Dan’ campaign coordinated with liberal 907 Initiative
Suzanne Downing: The Mary Peltola meltdown as her abusive text messages surface
2 thoughts on “Trump calls on Peltola to drop out of race”
Interesting to see the NYT turn on a dem. There is obviously much more to the story here.
Typical radical leftist strategy: If you can’t win fairly (and you can almost never win fairly), win dirty.
.
With diehard statists and totalitarians, it is always, ALWAYS all about the seizing and exercising of raw, naked power, by any means necessary. ALL other considerations, most of all ethics, are purely secondary if not entirely irrelevant in the pursuit of that goal.