By SUZANNE DOWNING
Nov. 5, 2026 – President Donald Trump called Thursday for votes cast for two spoiler candidates in Alaska’s US Senate race to be awarded immediately to Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Trump said votes for Decoy Dan — Daniel J. Sullivan — and Gerald Heikes should be added to the senator’s total, declaring that would settle the election in Sullivan’s favor.
“The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other ‘slug’ that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over – He easily wins. There is no other fair solution!” Trump wrote in the statement shown in the accompanying screenshot.
His statement comes as Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola remain separated by a narrow first-choice margin, with thousands of ballots cast for the two other candidates.
A Nov. 4 results graphic circulated with Trump’s statement showed:
| Candidate | Votes | Share |
| Mary Peltola | 102,962 | 48.17% |
| Sen. Dan Sullivan | 102,325 | 47.88% |
| Gerald Heikes | 4,846 | 2.27% |
| Daniel J. Sullivan | 3,600 | 1.68% |
The snapshot puts Peltola ahead by 637 votes. Heikes and the second Sullivan together held 8,446 votes — more than 13 times the gap between the leading candidates. The graphic estimated 70% of the vote had been counted; those preliminary figures do not represent a final tally.
The arithmetic explains the stakes of the spoiler allegations. It does not establish that every voter who chose Heikes or the second Sullivan intended to support the incumbent.
The controversy extends beyond the same-name candidate whom critics have dubbed “Decoy Dan.”
The New York Times reported Oct. 28 that people associated with Peltola’s campaign and national Democratic operatives pursued a broader effort to shape the four-candidate ballot in her favor.
Its reporting also described Heikes’ recruitment, making that allegation part of the pre-election investigation rather than a new disclosure after the vote.
Heikes, a Palmer drywall contractor, told the newspaper that an unidentified Midwestern man approached him about running and offered support. Heikes said he did not remember the man’s name and did not think he resembled a photograph of Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz, a central figure in the Times’ reporting. Kurtz is now under federal investigation in a criminal probe.
Heikes reached the general-election ballot after Democrat David Leslie withdrew. The Times reported that Kurtz had contacted Leslie before his withdrawal, which left Peltola as the only Democrat in the four-person field. It was a plan to split the Republican vote.
Trump’s proposed remedy would bypass Alaska’s ranked-choice process and is not likely to survive legal scrutiny. If no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and ballots transfer according to voters’ next eligible rankings. Ballots without a remaining eligible choice become inactive.
The Division of Elections says ranked-choice results are scheduled for Nov. 18, after eligible ballots have been reviewed and counted. The current raw data shows a narrow path for victory for the incumbent senator.
For now, Trump is demanding resolution while Alaska’s count continues and as the FBI investigation into the Peltola campaign proceeds
