Independent candidate Bill Hill is threatening to unseat Trump ally Nick Begich with a message of affordability
As Republicans fight to maintain their narrow majority in Congress, they face a unique challenge in Alaska – not from a Democrat, but from an independent commercial fisher and first-time candidate running to flip the state’s lone House seat.
Bill Hill, who is an Alaska Native and has worked in education and construction, has positioned himself as a working-class candidate who will fight to make life more affordable for people like himself and his family.
The legacy media has been tying itself in knots over the explosive Alaska ballot scandal that has rocked a key Senate race ahead of Tuesday's election.
The New York Times published a bombshell report alleging that Democratic operatives recruited a man named Dan Sullivan to run as a spoiler candidate against incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, in hopes of aiding his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Mary Peltola.
CNN anchor Dana Bash went viral shortly after the Times broke its story when she reacted, "So, this is not illegal. It is not new."
"I use the term dirty tricks intentionally because it’s not illegal," Bash said.
"This is something that is untoward. It is something that Democrats have tried to do in races where they think it could be to their advantage to run candidates that could siphon votes away from Republicans, and Republicans do the same," Bash continued. "I mean, just in Alaska alone, Mary Peltola, who’s now on the ballot for the Senate, she lost her House race two years ago. On that ballot, there was a candidate who was literally in prison who was reportedly recruited and kept on the ballot at the behest of Republicans."
The CNN host reiterated, "These are dirty tricks. They are legal, dirty tricks."
Some outlets relied on the "Republicans pounce" trope, adjusting the framing of stories that reflect poorly on Democrats to focus on the reaction of Republicans.
The Associated Press similarly ran Wednesday, "Trump calls for prosecution of Democratic Alaska Senate candidate over spoiler candidate controversy."
"Republicans launch investigations into Peltola campaign," The Washington Post's Thursday headline stated.
"Republicans are using it as fodder," MS NOW anchor Peter Alexander told viewers Thursday. "The Justice Department, which already preemptively sued to try to block the certification of that Senate race if the Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses, they're pouncing."
Honest Elections Project executive director Jason Snead isn’t surprised some in the media are bending over backwards to keep a Democrat from looking scandalous.
"This is a classic thing that we've been seeing with a lot of mainstream outlets, this idea that they're going to be more concerned about the Republican reaction to something seedy that the left is doing rather than the seedy thing itself, right? It's a very classic situation," Snead told Fox News Digital.
"I'm not surprised at all that we're seeing so many outlets today trying to either downplay the scandal up in Alaska, or to refocus on what Trump is doing or saying about it," he continued. "We know the media has double standards when it comes to the left and the right."
Meanwhile, Bloomberg columnist Nia Malika-Henderson appeared to praise the effort, saying that grassroots Democrats would view the scheme as a "good thing" that Democrats "finally" are "bringing a knife to a knife fight."
"I was sort of impressed that they were able to pull all of this off," Malika-Henderson said Thursday on CNN, before lamenting how the story got leaked to the Times and how it will give President Donald Trump "wind in his sails" in his accusations that Democrats cheat in elections.
Some journalists, including ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce and CBS News correspondent Ed O'Keefe, stressed to viewers that the Democratic scheme was "not illegal" despite newly launched probes looking into the matter since the Times story broke.
NBC News published multiple videos on its website posing questions like, "Is it illegal for Peltola campaign to recruit candidates?" and "Is it illegal to convince someone to run for office?"
Republicans have long been suspicious about the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher who is among four Senate candidates listed on Alaska's rank-choice ballot. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of Alaska seeking to block certification of the election results if the incumbent senator loses and votes cast for the other Sullivan could have changed the outcome.
Mainstream articles taking their denials dating back to at least June have largely taken them as fact. The Associated Press even wrote, "Sullivan said his campaign isn’t a sham or something Democrats put him up to doing," months before the Times reported his candidacy was no coincidence.
"In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can," the Times began its report Wednesday.
"The staffer complied, combing through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state. ... [I]f the Peltola campaign or its allies could track down and persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes on the state’s unusual, four-person ballot. The plan worked," the report said.
Snead believes that the "evidence was obvious," and blasted reporters who didn’t suspect something fishy was at play.
"Those willing to look have known for months that Decoy Dan’s candidacy is a brazen attempt to game ranked-choice voting, orchestrated by Democrats to help Mary Peltola win. That the mainstream media took the Peltola campaign’s and Democrats’ denials at face value for months and waited until nearly 60,000 Alaskans had already voted to reveal the truth, is unfortunately par for the course," Snead told Fox News Digital.
"Aren't you reporters? Shouldn't you have actually done some investigation, done some digging, or did you simply take the denial at face value and move on? Because that's not really what most people expect from serious investigative reporting outlets," he added.
According to Peltola's former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, Peltola was not directly involved in the scheme but was "definitely aware."
Peltola's campaign has continued to deny involvement in his candidacy.
"But The Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader," the Times reported. "The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory."
Peltola called the Times report a "distraction" and "stuff to sell newspapers." However, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into whether any crimes or civil violations were committed and the Department of Justice has issued new grand jury subpoenas.
The Senate’s No. 2 Republican believes that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had a hand in the alleged scheme unfolding in the Alaska Senate race.
Operatives for Rep. Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign, along with top aides in Senate Democrats’ campaign apparatus, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), are alleged to have been involved in creating one of the stranger races this election cycle: finding and recruiting another candidate named Dan Sullivan to run against the incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, R-Alaska, according to reporting from The New York Times.
National Democrats have maintained they had no hand in the move, but Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital in an interview that he believes the campaign received help from the very top.
"I mean, this is criminal behavior to steal the Alaska Senate race, it's now been fully exposed," Barrasso said. "And there is proof that the Peltola campaign knew about it, and that Schumer schemed and colluded with them for over a year to try to search for and then coax a decoy of Dan Sullivan onto the ballot with a purpose only to deceive the voters."
Schumer’s office and Peltola's campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
The peculiar situation in Alaska has been ongoing for months and has sparked legal battles at the state and national levels, as well as condemnation from Republicans across the country, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
Murkowski argued on X that "ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process."
"Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign — what has been revealed is a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials," she said.
Much of the consternation over the matter is because of Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, meaning that both candidates named Dan Sullivan, Peltola and Gerald Heikes will all appear on the same ballot.
Peltola weighed in on Thursday at an event in Juneau, Alaska, telling supporters she wanted to "clear the air."
"I knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot except for me and the incumbent," Peltola said. "That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters. I know I can beat Dan Sullivan."
The point of the scheme was allegedly to sow confusion among voters as to which Sullivan was which in an attempt to give Peltola an edge. Barrasso said that while he was confident the incumbent Sullivan would win, the plan showed that the "Democratic campaign has secretly been making fun of Alaskan voters for being so easily tricked."
Mary Peltola has denied that she knew anything about an effort to put another candidate on the Alaska ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent, as the US justice department escalated a criminal investigation this week with new grand jury subpoenas.
“I just want to clear the air,” the Democratic Senate candidate said on Thursday at the top of a speech in a downtown bar in Juneau, Alaska’s capital. “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”
The shorter the countdown until the midterms, the more aggressive the Donald Trump administration gets in its election-related legal challenges. On Thursday, the federal government stepped up its offensive in an effort to show that thousands of people without the right to vote are planning to participate in upcoming elections in California, Washington and other states. It has also scrutinized Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Alaska after The New York Times reported that Peltola’s team maneuvered to recruit a third candidate with the same name as her Republican rival in an effort to split the Republican vote in the state’s election.
Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola denied Thursday that she knew anything about an effort to put another candidate on the Alaska ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent as the Justice Department escalated a criminal investigation with new grand jury subpoenas.
Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola (D) on Thursday again denied knowing anything about her campaign’s alleged recruitment of Dan J. Sullivan to challenge her GOP opponent, incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), in an effort to dilute the incumbent’s vote share. “I just want to clear the air,” Peltola said during a speech in Juneau, Alaska,…
Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola (D) on Thursday again denied knowing anything about her campaign’s alleged recruitment of Dan J. Sullivan to challenge her GOP opponent, incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), in an effort to dilute the incumbent’s vote share. “I just want to clear the air,” Peltola said during a speech in Juneau, Alaska,…
Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola insisted she "knew nothing" about an alleged scheme to recruit people with the same name as her opponent to run in the election, while incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan told Fox News she is "still lying."
"I just want to clear the air," Peltola began in a speech to supporters on Thursday in Juneau. "I knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters. I know I can beat Dan Sullivan."
In an interview with Fox News, Sullivan, a Republican, said Peltola's campaign "demonstrated the most corrupt action you could take."
"Most candidates, when they run for office, I've run for office, and this is my third election. You sit down at the beginning of your election with your advisers to think about 'What's my record? I'm going to run on a strong record. What's my vision? What do I want to get done?' Peltola sat down with her advisers, Democrats from D.C. and Alaska, and their first order of business was 'how do we cheat? How do we make sure Alaskans throw away their votes?'" Sullivan said.
"This was a secret project that they had. And then they worked on it for over a year. And then she consistently lied about it. What's amazing to me is how consistently and casually everyone involved in this, from Kirsten Gillibrand and Schumer down to Peltola and her advisors, and everybody in between lied about this directly to the Alaskan people," Sullivan continued. "Heck, Peltola is still lying about it, right?"
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Peltola’s campaign, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, carried out the alleged election scheme in hopes that voters would be confused by two Dan Sullivans and therefore draw support from the incumbent Republican senator.
The Justice Department is moving to delay certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate election results since two individuals by the name of Dan Sullivan appear alongside each other on the ballot. The state’s incumbent U.S. senator is listed on the ballot as "Sullivan, Dan S.," while the other Dan Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher, is listed as "Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr." The latter is known to his critics as "Decoy Dan."
Sen. Sullivan told Fox News correspondent Matt Finn that what he is hearing on the campaign trail is "the disdain that this shows that Peltola has for the Alaskan people."
"Think about it. Her first big move as a candidate, she hadn't announced her candidacy yet, was to rig the system and work together to cheat and to recruit a candidate whose sole purpose, we all know now, was to confuse Alaskans to rig the vote for her. It is a shocker. It's the biggest scandal in Alaskan electoral history by far," Sullivan said.
"Mary Peltola and her campaign and the Democrats in D.C. and Alaska think the Alaskan people are dumb. We're not dumb," Sullivan added. "And this is going to have a huge impact on the election. We're going to win."
Fox News Digital's Nora Moriarty contributed to this report.
The controversy in Alaska over the contest for a Senate seat keeps growing. President Donald Trump remarked Thursday on the pivotal race that could determine control of the Senate in next Tuesday’s midterm elections. The president, whose administration’s future is at stake, questioned whether Alaska’s Democratic Senate candidate, Mary Peltola, could take her seat even if she wins. His remarks come after The New York Times revealed that Peltola’s team maneuvered to recruit a third candidate with the same name as her Republican rival in an effort to split the Republican vote in the state’s election.
Alaska Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson said she was not surprised Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, crossed party lines to endorse her Democratic opponent in the governor's race.
Wilson told Fox News Digital that Murkowski endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins on Tuesday because the two share similar views on taxation and Alaska's oil industry.
"It should not surprise anyone. They're two peas in a pod, and I can tell you that as governor," Wilson told Fox News Digital.
"It doesn't surprise me that she is supporting the just keep taxing JKT," Wilson continued. "You know the guy that supports an increase in income tax, the guy that wants to double the fuel tax here in Alaska, the guy that has said ‘Hey I’m gonna come after the oil companies,' the guy that does not support paying out a full permanent fund dividend."
In August, during a candidate forum hosted by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, Kreiss-Tomkins said he believes "broad-based tax and revenues of that nature are likely going to be necessary to balance our budget."
Wilson argued that Kreiss-Tomkins' economic policies align with Murkowski's, accusing both politicians of supporting what she described as "socialist policies."
The Republican candidate said she has been "sounding the alarm since 2010 about the fact that she was [subscribing] to extreme liberal socialist policies," referring to Murkowski.
Wilson also said she would not "assign motive" to Murkowski's decision to endorse Kreiss-Tomkins, though she did not rule out the possibility that the endorsement was intended as a rebuke of President Donald Trump.
Murkowski has opposed several legislative priorities backed by Trump during the 119th Congress, including the SAVE America Act, which would impose additional proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.
In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in July, Murkowski wrote that "as written, the SAVE America Act isn’t a simple fix to safeguard elections, as proponents claim. It would impose costly new barriers and prevent some, perhaps many, from voting, while also creating chaos before the November elections."
In January, Murkowski joined Senate Democrats in voting in favor of the War Powers Resolution, which failed but could have limited Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran.
The president then took to Truth Social to state that Murkowski "should never be elected to office again."
If elected governor, Wilson pledged in her video interview that she would continue to "sound the alarm" about Murkowski, whom she described as a "so-called Republican senator."
The candidate also characterized Murkowski's political positions as "absolutely terrible."
Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola is facing an onslaught of social media criticism over a resurfaced quote that critics say reeks of hypocrisy, following an explosive New York Times report this week.
"It should be a criminal offense to lie or mislead the electorate," Peltola says in the clip from August posted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) on Wednesday, shortly after The New York Times reported that her campaign was actively involved in a scheme to peel votes away from incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by recruiting namesake and spoiler candidates.
Conservatives on social media quickly shared the post and suggested that Peltola should be investigated based on her own words.
"Your terms are acceptable," Townhall columnist Dustin Grage posted on X.
The New York Times report rocked the Alaska Senate race, which could determine the balance of power in the Senate, as questions now swirl over the legality of the campaign's alleged actions. The Department of Justice and the state of Alaska are both investigating the genesis of the alleged scheme to recruit Dan J. Sullivan into the race against incumbent Dan S. Sullivan.
Fox News learned Wednesday that federal prosecutors are conducting an "aggressive criminal investigation" into how the second Sullivan secured a spot on Alaska's ballot, according to two sources familiar with the probe. Investigators are preparing grand jury subpoenas and examining potential violations of voters' rights, with the investigation expected to continue beyond Election Day. The DOJ declined to comment.
Alaska's Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced that he was ordering a probe into the matter.
"Today’s New York Times reporting reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes. The Alaska Division of Elections investigated these very concerns in June of this year. The new reporting substantially supports the Division’s findings," Dunleavy noted in a post on X.
"I am therefore directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted. The evidence will determine what happens next," the GOP governor continued.
The DOJ has issued dozens of subpoenas in the past 24 hours, reportedly looking into whether the campaign violated federal law by conspiring against the rights of voters. Others have argued the alleged actions are not illegal, and simply a "dirty trick" that is sometimes utilized in campaigns.
Fox News Digital reached out to Peltola's campaign for comment.
Peltola has dismissed reports of the alleged election scheme as "just another distraction," arguing that The New York Times’ report was solely purposed to "sell newspapers."
Her campaign also continues to assert innocence, previously telling Fox News in part that the Alaskans for Mary campaign "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign."
President Donald Trump’s administration filed a revised lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block Alaska’s election results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan narrowly loses and, according to a person familiar with the matter, issued more than 40 subpoenas and document requests in its probe.
The revised complaint by the US Justice Department cited a New York Times report that Democratic operatives recruited another candidate named Sullivan who could siphon votes from the incumbent. The Justice Department said the effort was intended to mislead voters and help elect Democratic candidate Mary Peltola.
The suit raises the prospect of a messy fight over a contest that could determine US Senate control in next Tuesday’s midterm elections. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, while Democrats need a net gain of four seats.
“They orchestrated his sham campaign for the purpose of misleading Alaskan voters and getting Peltola elected,” lawyers for the Justice Department wrote in their amended complaint, referring to a retired teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., who is on the ballot without a party affiliation.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy also called for a state investigation into the allegation and said in an interview with News Nation that any finding of illegality “may in fact impact whether someone is seated in the US Senate.”
Peltola’s campaign did not immediately respond to the amended complaint but has previously said it had “no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.”
Dispute over candidates sharing Sullivan surname
The Times reported on Wednesday that Peltola aides worked with campaign lawyers and staff at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to recruit two candidates who could siphon votes from the incumbent Republican Sullivan, including Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, who was fired in August, told the Times that Peltola was aware of the effort.
The DSCC has denied involvement and accused Republicans of propping up candidates of their own in other races. Reuters was unable to independently verify the Times report.
Daniel J. Sullivan has previously denied in interviews with US news outlets that his aim is to cause confusion or divert votes from Dan S. Sullivan.
Trump presses legal challenge ahead of vote
Trump, who for years has sowed doubts about the fairness of US elections, had pushed the Justice Department to bring the Alaska case even before the Times report, seeking to preemptively block Alaska from certifying Peltola, a former congresswoman, if she were to win the election.
Trump told reporters earlier on Thursday: “It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run. Frankly, I don’t know how you can allow somebody like that to run. It’s so unfair.”
Jessica Levinson, a professor who specializes in election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said that as long as Daniel J. Sullivan, the challenger to the incumbent, didn’t conceal financial support, his campaign likely didn’t break any laws and political parties are allowed to mislead the public.
Policing such behavior would open the door to the government investigating why candidates choose to run and why voters support them, she said. “To the extent that people are uncomfortable with two Sullivans, I would offer you’re probably going to be uncomfortable with a really high level of government intrusion into our elections as well.”
Justice Department also investigates California voting
The Department of Justice has also escalated another legal campaign in California, where it has been investigating alleged voting by noncitizens.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office received grand jury subpoenas as part of the probe, according to copies of subpoenas seen by Reuters on Thursday.
The subpoenas, dated last week, seek records related to the county’s response to prior letters from the Trump administration warning of evidence that noncitizens are on the state’s voter roll. They also seek documents about the county’s efforts to prevent noncitizens from voting.
California has previously said the state’s safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
Trump and Democrats intensify final campaign push
As campaigning enters its final few days, the White House has shelved plans for Trump to appear on Saturday in Kansas, the site of an unexpectedly competitive Senate campaign, a Republican campaign official said.
“I don’t feel like I have to go to Kansas,” Trump told reporters.
Instead, the president will participate in more than 20 virtual campaign appearances before Tuesday, a White House official said.
Trump held a rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Thursday, his second visit in two weeks to a state where opinion polls show an unexpectedly close Senate race between Republican Darline Graham and Democrat Annie Andrews.
Speaking about the hotly contested Michigan Senate race, where progressive Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed holds a small lead in most polls over Republican Mike Rogers, Trump continued his identity-based attacks on El-Sayed, a Muslim, by saying at the rally that “if you’re Black or if you’re Jewish, and if you vote for Abdul, you’re crazy.”
With control of the Senate at stake, both parties are deploying their biggest names in the closing days of the campaign, with Trump stumping for Republicans and former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigning for Democrats in competitive races.
Harris stumped in Macon, Georgia, at a get-out-the-vote effort. Democrats are aiming to reelect Senator Jon Ossoff, who leads in polling, and hope that Keisha Lance Bottoms, locked in a tight race, can become the first woman elected as governor in the state.
Trump’s approval rating stood at 32% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday, near a record low, as Americans sour on the high cost of living and the war with Iran.
More than 44 million Americans had already voted as of Thursday evening, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. A total of 45.9 million voted early in the 2022 midterms.
On Thursday’s broadcast of “NewsNation Now,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) said that because Alaska has ranked-choice voting, “if you recruited a third-party candidate who can take votes away from your opponent, that’s part of the process,” and he wishes his
The left-wing hosts of ABC's "The View" are taking Alaska Democrats to task for the dirty trick of adding a second Dan Sullivan to the Alaska election ballot to confuse voters in an attempt to torpedo incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan's chances at reelection.
The Justice Department issued subpoenas, a House oversight committee sought interviews and the state opened its own inquiry into a Democratic plan to recruit a spoiler into a Senate race.
President Donald Trump believes the reported Democrat scheme to recruit a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot in Alaska to hurt Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in the general election is "a criminal act" and that Alaska's Democrat Senate nominee, Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK), who was reportedly aware of the scheme, should be prosecuted.
Login
