Dan J. Sullivan switches from Republican to ‘undeclared’ ahead of general election

Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Dan J. Sullivan is heading into the general election as an undeclared voter, a type of independent.

According to records kept by the Alaska Division of Elections, Sullivan switched from a Republican to an undeclared party affiliation when he requested an absentee ballot for the August primary election.

Sullivan’s status as a Republican was one of the reasons the division initially rejected his candidacy, claiming that he was not running in good faith. The division’s decision was reversed upon appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. 

Polling indicates incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola are well ahead of Dan J. Sullivan and Republican challenger Gerald Heikes. 

On the general election ballot, Dan J. Sullivan is listed as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.,” without any party label. Dan S. Sullivan is listed as “Dan S. Sullivan (Registered Republican) Incumbent.”

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Alaska Division of Elections, seeking to pause the certification of the Senate election unless Dan S. Sullivan wins re-election. 

The department has made a legally dubious claim that the federal government has the ability to intervene in the election because voters could be confused by the two similarly named candidates.

President Donald Trump and other Republicans have repeatedly lambasted Dan J. Sullivan by name, accusing him of running a sham campaign in order to harm the incumbent’s chances of re-election. 

Dan J. Sullivan has said he is dissatisfied with the incumbent and is running to offer Alaskans a different option.

A former member of the Alaska Independence Party, Dan J. Sullivan became a political independent after that party voted to dissolve earlier this year. He changed his registration to Republican when he filed to become a U.S. Senate candidate in June.

When he requested an absentee ballot in August, ahead of that month’s primary election, he listed his political affiliation as ‘undeclared,’ an act that switched him from Republican to undeclared.

When initially contacted by email last week about the change, Sullivan said he hadn’t requested it.

On Monday, Division of Elections spokesman Steve Kirch said he had and provided a copy of Sullivan’s absentee ballot request form.

Informed about that, Sullivan said by email, “holy cow … I did! – I can only guess I was thinking that since they didn’t affiliate me on the ballot, I should go with that, but to be honest with you, I am frazzled by all of this.”