Trump's illegal attack on Alaska elections continues to wilt in the face of facts
Donald Trump’s illegal attack on Mary Peltola, endorsed and promoted by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Sen. Dan Sullivan, continues to wilt under pressure, while the Trump administration tries to keep the case going until Election Day.
“This lawsuit fits into the much larger and troubling pattern of attempted federal interference in the 2026 midterm elections at the direction of President Donald J. Trump,” writes UCLA Law Professor Richard Hasen in proposed amicus brief filed in the case.
“It is especially telling that the federal government waited until the last minute to sue, seeking relief if, and only if, its preferred candidate loses,” Hasen wrote.
He said “the government is only concerned about voter confusion impacting Dan S. Sullivan. In other words, the United States proposes a “heads we win, tails you lose” scenario that favors only one outcome,” he wrote.
There is no federal law that allows Trump’s election tampering.
“Even though the executive branch plays no role in the administration of elections, the United States finds an ‘elephant in a mousehole,’ seeking a vast federal power to oversee state and local election processes from a non-germane election law statute that say no such thing,” he wrote.
No one has identified any illegal activity regarding Peltola and the Daniel J. Sullivan campaign, but Trump, Dunleavy, Sullivan and the Republican Party continue to make claims that something illegal must have happened, though they don’t know what it was.
They claim that voter confusion exists and that Alaskans can’t tell one Sullivan from another. There is no evidence that is true.
The Trump lawsuit to help Sullivan is likely to be dismissed today or this weekend by federal district Judge Sharon Gleason—mainly because the Department of Justice third-rate complaint is as credible as Trump’s plans to give $5,000 to every adult if the Republicans win.
There is no legal justification for the federal government interfering in the Alaska election. The U.S. Constitution gives the power to run elections to the states.
Dunleavy and Sullivan, who have been complaining about federal overreach for years, turn out to be supporters of federal overreach in this case because it could help Sullivan stay in the U.S. Senate.
Trump’s Department of Justice filed an amended complaint, written with as much care as a Trump post on Truth Social, that claims the Supremacy Clause of the United States should come into play.
“DOJ’s choice to file the Amended Complaint, which adds nothing of substance to the original complaint, is a transparent attempt to keep this case alive for a few more days to cast a pall over the upcoming election and let the federal government continue to interfere in Alaska’s elections. Alaska’s voters deserve to cast their ballots without that Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads,” the Peltola campaign and the Democratic committee said.
Dunleavy went on right-wing cable TV Thursday to claim that some unknown number of Alaska voters who want to vote for the incumbent Sullivan—who is listed on the ballot as the incumbent—may vote for the other Sullivan because they are confused.
But anyone who looks at the ballot can see there is no room for confusion, as the Alaska Department of Law has made clear in its court filings, contradicting Dunleavy’s blather on cable TV.
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