Jessica Tarlov Says Reported Democratic Alaska 'Dan Sullivan' Ploy Feels 'Icky'

Jessica Tarlov says the reported Democratic effort to put a second Dan Sullivan on Alaska's Senate ballot is "a dirty trick."

Tarlov, a co-host of Fox News's The Five and of Raging Moderates, was responding to a New York Times investigation. ABC News and PBS News describe the report as based on text messages among members of Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign about finding Alaskans named Dan Sullivan to run against Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have denied any involvement, PBS News reported.

"So I don't like it," Tarlov said on the episode. "I accept that this is something that happens."

Jessica Tarlov: 'Not Interested in Being Lectured'

Tarlov did not call the tactic illegal, and she did not say it should be undone. "So I'm certainly not interested in being lectured about how dirty we are, but I didn't like it. And it's not illegal, it looks like," she said. She added that reports of payments would be a different matter: "Rumors about if there was money involved, and getting paid off, that could be illegal."

She said that on Monday, when the subject came up, she had been "very defensive," arguing that "the Trump DOJ doesn't want to compete, and they're already crying foul, and they're not going to accept election results, and they think that their voters are too stupid, which I stand by."

The Justice Department had filed a National Voter Registration Act suit over the race. As PolitiKool reported, the department says the suit asks for ballot preservation and an investigation, and Attorney General Todd Blanche said it "does not seek to stop any ballot from being cast or to stop the certification." PBS News reported that the suit seeks to halt certification of a possible Peltola victory, and that Trump has called for Peltola to be prosecuted.

On the podcast, she added a caveat.

"But it's a dirty trick, right? It's a dirty trick that has been done before, but it makes me feel icky." — Jessica Tarlov

Co-host Scott Galloway was more relaxed about it. "I finally feel like we're being smart, that we're doing what Republicans have been doing forever," he said. He predicted that whoever wins will be seated because "the courts generally don't like to overturn elections."

What the Record Shows on Same-Name Candidates

Tarlov pointed to three earlier cases.

In a Miami case, Tarlov said, the Democrat lost by 32 votes, a Republican operative was convicted, and the Republican kept the seat.

In a Pennsylvania race, Tarlov said, Republicans recruited a candidate with the same name as the retiring Democratic incumbent, and Summer Lee still won. Democrats campaigned to clear up the confusion. The claim that Republicans recruited him is her characterization.

The Alaska precedent she cited was not a same-name case. Tarlov said the Republican Party in Alaska "backed" Eric Hafner, a New York prison inmate who ran for Alaska's House seat against Peltola in 2024. Hafner ran as a Democrat. When Democrats went to court to remove him, the state Republican Party supported keeping him on the ballot, and the Alaska Supreme Court rejected the Democrats' attempt.

How Alaska's Ballot Handles Two Sullivans

State election officials removed the challenger, retired Petersburg teacher Dan J. Sullivan, from the ballot. The Division of Elections said his aim was to "confuse" voters, pointing to his registering as a Republican only when he filed and first listing his name as "Dan S. Sullivan," the incumbent's middle initial, before correcting it to "Dan J." The Alaska Supreme Court ordered him restored in a brief order, with a full opinion promised later. Chief Justice Carney called disqualification "the most extreme remedy possible." The case was sent back to decide how his name would appear.

The division lists him as "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." with no party label, PBS News reported. Tarlov made the same point about the label, saying "on the ballot, it does say Dan Sullivan, Republican incumbent, versus the Dan Sullivan with no title next to it."

Tarlov also argued that Alaska's voting system limits the damage. "It does matter a lot less in ranked choice voting system," she said. Alaska uses a top-four primary and a ranked-choice general election. A voter who ranks the challenger first and the senator second would see that vote move to the senator if the challenger is eliminated.

The Retraction Request

The Times story relied in part on Elisa Rios, a former Peltola campaign staffer who was fired in the summer, just before the primary. Rios requested a retraction after she had spoken to the Times and gave no reason for the request, ABC News reported. Tarlov herself raised it as a caveat, noting that "the campaign aide who gave the story, then tried to retract it."

Tarlov did not expect either party to give up the tactic. "But if something's gonna change, everybody's gotta lay down their proverbial swords, and I don't see that happening. But I don't feel great about it," she said.