New Fronts Open in the Election-Integrity Fight as Democrats Look to Mislead Voters
The fight for election integrity is escaping the voting booth and spilling onto the campaign trail as Democrats get creative in their efforts to claw the Senate back from Republican control.
In Alaska, a copycat candidate who shares a name with incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan launched a campaign with the backing of a Democratic consultant that was, according to the state’s Division of Elections, intentionally designed to confuse voters about who they’d be casting their ballot for.
In other Republican-leaning states, like Nebraska and Montana, Democrats have taken to dressing their candidates up as independents and downplaying their left-wing policy commitments to avoid weighing them down with the party’s toxic brand.
Following the 2020 election, the idea of election integrity, especially in the context of President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign, left a bitter taste in many Americans’ mouths. Now, as a Republican-controlled Congress struggles to pass the Trump-backed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which attempts to ensure only American citizens vote in federal elections, tangible and productive victories feel few and far between.
Yet, Republicans have secured some unconventional, but important, election integrity wins in key Senate races across the U.S., as November elections rapidly approach and the fate of a Republican majority in both houses of Congress lies in the balance.
Seeing Double in Alaska
Earlier this month, the Division of Elections in Alaska threw the second Sullivan off the ballot after Alaska’s director of elections Carol Beecher found that he sought “to confuse [himself] with another candidate in the race, the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan.” Beecher pointed out that the candidate registered to run under the exact same name as the incumbent despite records showing no previous affiliation with that variation of the name.
The impostor candidate was historically registered to vote under the name “Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr,” yet his campaign filings did not match those records. Both the “J” and the “Jr.” were notably dropped off the candidate’s name.
The fake Sullivan’s initial approach was even more brazen: He requested to file under the name “Dan S. Sullivan” — a name identical to the incumbent’s — despite the fact his actual middle name begins with a “J.”
In her , Beecher notes other odd similarities to the incumbent senator’s campaign, including an aesthetically similar campaign website, featuring dark blue accents and gold stars, as well as the candidate’s decisions to run as a Republican, after voting for Democrats his entire life. Not only were voters faced with candidates sharing the same name and party, but also campaign materials essentially mirroring each other.
“Of course, under Alaska law, you are free to change your party affiliation,” Beecher wrote. “This said, that you chose to change your affiliation to the same political party — one you’d never affiliated with before — as the incumbent Senator immediately before filing a declaration of candidacy in which you asked to access the ballot under the same name – [sic] in a shortened form you’d never used before – [sic] as the incumbent Senator strongly suggests an intent to confuse yourself with the incumbent Senator rather than to distinguish yourself from him.”
Further, Beecher said a political consultant Sullivan hired not only has longtime ties to Democrats, but supported the incumbent Sullivan’s Democratic challenger in the primary. While Beecher conceded that hiring the consultant, “in isolation, is innocuous,” paired with the other evidence it “suggests a determined effort and a deliberate attempt to use the similarity of your name to confuse Alaska voters in the upcoming primary election.”
In May, it was revealed progressive consultant Amber Lee, who supported former Representative Mary Peltola — who is running as a Democrat for Senate in Alaska — actually authored the phony Sullivan’s campaign announcement, according to a PDF file of the campaign press release, Townhall reported.
Following Beecher’s announcement, the second Sullivan campaign said it is challenging the decision, claiming removing the candidate from the ballot violates state and federal law. Notably, Sullivan’s attorneys did not deny that his candidacy was intended to confuse voters, they just insisted that a candidate’s motivation for running is irrelevant to their eligibility.
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“Nothing in Alaska law regulates in any way the private motivations that draw individuals to declare or campaign for office,” Sullivan’s attorneys wrote in a court filing obtained by the Associated Press.
Alaska Department of Law spokesperson Sam Curtis told the AP the agency will defend the division’s previous findings. Ballots in Alaska are set to be printed later this month.
“Democrats are resorting to deception because they can’t win over Alaska and Montana voters on the merits,” Bernadette Breslin, National Republican Senatorial Committee national press secretary said in a statement to National Review.
The Independent Shell Game
In Montana, Democrats are playing a different, albeit less overt, shell game. There, the party is attempting to quietly push Seth Bodnar, an ostensibly independent candidate, across the finish line. While Bodnar is running as an Independent, he’s received support from Senator Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and former Democratic Senator Jon Tester and, as previously reported, he has deep ties to other establishment Democrats and well-documented progressive commitments. During his tenure as president of the University of Montana, for instance, Bodnar allowed a transgender athlete to compete on the women’s cross-country team.
A Bodnar victory in November is likely contingent on Democratic candidate Alani Bankhead dropping out of the race, as the two candidates seem to be splitting the left-wing vote. Amid rumors of her imminent departure, Bankhead doubled down last week on her commitment to stay in the race. She then called for Bodnar to step down, citing Montana election code and state Democratic Party bylaws, which require a Democratic candidate to remain on the ballot.
“If dropping out was the right move to pave the way for a better candidate, I would absolutely do it because the stakes are so high,” Bankhead said last week. “But Seth Bodnar is absolutely the last person on the face of this earth I would ever drop out of this race for.”
Assuming Bankhead and Bodnar both remain in the race, the polling looks positive for Republican candidate and former Montana state Attorney General Kurt Alme, who is vying for Senator Steve Daines’s (R., Mont.) seat. Alme is polling 44 percent, compared to Bankhead’s 25 percent and Bodnar’s 20 percent.
Montana is not the only state where a textbook Democrat is running as an Independent to avoid alienating a right-leaning electorate.
In Nebraska, Dan Osborn is running as an Independent against incumbent Senator Pete Ricketts (R., Neb.). Osborn’s campaign slogan is “Lifelong Independent,” but the candidate is endorsed by Nebraska’s Democratic Party and has accepted thousands in donations from progressive sources like Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D., Mass.) campaign.
“Dan’s campaign is powered by small-dollar, grassroots donations from people across the political spectrum and constantly hears from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who are fed up with both major parties who are out of touch with the real issues people face,” a campaign spokesperson told National Review. “As a lifelong independent, Dan will always do what’s right for Nebraskans. He won’t caucus with either party because his job is to represent his state, not the interests of the establishment politicians and corporations who have used their money to corrupt our political system.”
The Bodnar campaign did not respond to National Review’s request for comment.
Whether it’s misleading party affiliations or Dan Sullivan squared, Republicans are highlighting Democrats’ attempts to shift the messaging around progressive — and potentially unpopular — candidates in more conservative states.
“Voters will see through their political stunts and reward Republican candidates like Sen. Dan Sullivan and Kurt Alme as they work to lower costs, defend election integrity, and protect the President’s Senate majority,” Breslin said.
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