Ohio Dan can't stop talking about Petersburg Dan

The Wall Street Journal transcript of an friendly interview by Kim Strassel with Sen. Dan Sullivan has her pausing for an ad at one point and saying, “When we come back more with Dan J. Sullivan, Senator for Alaska about his race for reelection.”

The Journal audio has the correct middle initial, but it’s noteworthy that even a stalwart Wasilla supporter of Sullivan’s like Strassel can get the incumbent’s name wrong.

No one is doing more to keep Dan J. Sullivan’s name in front of the public than Dan S.

Strassel, a long-time right-wing political columnist, visited Alaska in 2014 to write a piece attacking the reelection campaign of Sen. Mark Begich, his support for Obamacare, and claiming that Dan Sullivan’s “pro Alaska brag sheet is long.”

She eventually married the man she quoted in the lead about Begich’s failings, Nick Van Dyke, and moved to Wasilla.

On Strassel’s podcast with Dan S., they both complained about ranked choice voting, claimed the Alaska Supreme Court was wrong in allowing Petersburg Dan J. on the ballot. They agreed that Alaskans are angry about the Southeast Sullivan.

Dan S. continues to insinuate that Petersburg Dan J. might have violated someone’s civil rights, amplifying the fatuous claims of GOP activists from Outside.

“Your paper actually did a good op-ed recently about potential federal actions, civil rights actions that if someone, again, if their primary purpose is to undertake a candidacy that's actually meant to confuse people. And think about it, it's really trying to get people to throw away their vote for the wrong person, that there are. Evidently during the Biden administration, they brought an action like that against somebody under a conspiracy theory and civil rights violation action. I don't know if the federal government is looking into that, but I think that would be the only other thing.”

Sullivan is wrong. The Biden administration case mentioned in the column Sullivan praised did not deal with a candidate on the ballot, but an internet troll who created anti-Clinton memes during the 2016 campaign aimed at fooling people into thinking they had voted.

The Trump administration and the Dunleavy administration, through anonymous sources, are spreading stories that criminal investigations of Petersburg Dan are under way.

This has all the signs of a smear campaign that is not aimed at protecting civil rights, but of using the power of government to try to silence a man whose only offense is that he shares a name with an incumbent Republican senator.

Meanwhile, Dan S. repeated the lie on Strassel’s podcast that Petersburg Dan J. tried to “steal my middle initial.”

“When he originally filed, he filed with an initial that was S, that's my middle initial. That's not his middle initial. The Division of Elections said, "Hey, you can't do that. That's actually Senator Sullivan's middle initial,” said Ohio Dan.

That’s not what happened.

On May 29, 2026, Daniel J. Sullivan filed a sworn declaration to run for the U.S. Senate. He did not list his middle initial as “S” or engage in any deception.

On June 1, 2026, Elections Director Carol Beecher sent an email to Dan J. Sullivan at 10:35 a.m. asking if he had a preference for how his name should appear on the ballot.

On that same day, Beecher sent a letter to Dan J. Sullivan saying his name would appear on the ballot as “Sullivan, Dan J. (Registered Republican).

On June 3. 2026, Dan J. Sullivan wrote to Beecher in response to the claims from the National Republican Senatorial Committee on June 1 that he should not be allowed to be a candidate.

He pointed out that Beecher could use middle initials on the ballot to differentiate between the Sullivans. He signed the June 3 letter Daniel J. Sullivan. He did not ask to use Dan S. Sullivan’s middle initial. He wasn’t pretending his middle initial was anything but J.

That should have been the end of this, but Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and Beecher, carrying water for Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, created confusion and distorted the truth.

On June 8, at 8:54 a.m., Beecher again wrote Dan J. Sulivan asking how his name should appear on the ballot—claiming that he had not replied to the June 1 email. But his June 3 letter was a clear reply.

“Your office is of course free to take reasonable steps to avoid voter confusion where two individuals with the same name are running for office—for example, by using a middle initial,” Dan J. wrote on June 3, signing the letter as Daniel J. Sullivan.

Also on June 8, Dahlstrom sent a threatening letter to Dan J. Sullivan, suggesting that he might have committed perjury.

On June 8, at 11:27 a.m., Dan J. Sullivan replied to Beecher’s email that morning with nothing but the words, “Dan S. Sullivan” and a question about whether Beecher had received his June 3 letter—the document in which he suggested using middle initials.

Dan J. Sullivan corrected his email eight hours later, saying, “Apologies. Please list as Dan J. Sullivan.” Sullivan claims he made a mistake. Given his previous contacts with the state, that’s the only explanation that makes any sense. Unless you want to think that he was so stupid he could use a phony middle initial when he was on the record favoring the use of his real middle initial.

But on June 15, Beecher misled the public in her letter explaining her reasons as to why Dan J. Sullivan could not be a candidate.

“Indeed, you yourself appeared to be confused when you initially emailed the Division asking to be listed on the ballot as ‘Dan S. Sullivan.’ ‘S’ is Senator Sullivan’s middle initial, not yours.” Beecher wrote.

The words “initially emailed the division” are at the heart of Beecher’s lie.

Dan J. Sullivan may have been confused in response to her June 8 email, but the preponderance of evidence, starting with his sworn declaration May 29 and other letters, is that he initially asked to be listed as Dan J. Sullivan.

Beecher did not provide an honest context when she claimed he “initially emailed the Division asking to be listed” as Dan S. Sullivan.

It would have been correct for her to say only that he sent her a two word email response of “Dan S. Sullivan” and corrected it eight hours later. The extended email exchange is reprinted below.

Dan J.’s correction was in line with multiple contacts, including the sworn declaration, that his middle initial was J.

The Republican Party repeated Beecher’s false claim in a court filing, as did the state of Iowa and 13 other Republican attorneys general who inaccurately claimed he “initially requested the incumbent’s middle initial.”

Beecher’s falsehood continues to be repeated and amplified worldwide in the news coverage. Ohio Dan is repeating it as well.

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The Division of Elections has not explained why it decided that Dan J. Sullivan Jr. would be the only candidate listed on the ballot with nothing under his name to show that he belongs to a party or is nonpartisan or undeclared, following the normal process under state rules. Will Courtney, a persistent reporter for Alaska’s News Source, has been repeatedly rebuffed by state officials who have declined to answer his questions about the ballot.