Blanche Defends Trump-Ordered Alaska Senate Suit on Sunday Shows as Peltola Campaign Moves to Join Case

Since the Justice Department sued on Thursday, Oct. 22, to block certification of Alaska's U.S. Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, the fight has moved from the court docket to the Sunday talk shows and a motion to intervene. Election Day is Nov. 3, just over a week away.

Blanche's Sunday defense

Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the suit on Oct. 25 in interviews on CNN's "State of the Union" and CBS's "Face the Nation." President Trump has said publicly that he ordered the lawsuit himself.

"President Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape or form," Blanche said. He called it "crazy" when CNN's Dana Bash asked whether the suit lays groundwork for the kind of post-election challenges that preceded Jan. 6, 2021.

Pressed on what crime the administration believes has been committed, Blanche said: "Well, it depends. There could be a crime. But the real wrong here is that Alaskans are going to be confused and will not have their vote heard."

He described the request as a safeguard. If a court later finds confusion produced "an unjust, improper result that is not the will of the Alaskan voter," he said, the DOJ wants Alaska's courts and electoral process able to act on it. "We wish that we didn't have to do this," he said.

On CBS, Blanche said "there is no dispute that the only reason the second Dan Sullivan is running is to pull votes away." That is a disputed claim. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg and a registered Republican, has denied it. Democrats say they have no connection to him.

What the lawsuit asks

The complaint asks a federal court to bar certification only if two conditions are met. Sullivan must not win. And had every vote cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast for the senator instead, and Alaska's ranked-choice process run accordingly, Sullivan would have won.

It also asks for a pause in certification pending an investigation into whether votes for Sullivan Jr. were meant for the incumbent. The filing says the DOJ brings the case "to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska."

In the August top-four primary, Sullivan took about 41.4%, Mary Peltola 49.5% and Sullivan Jr. about 2.5%, according to figures reported by the Daily Wire. Polls show Peltola narrowly ahead.

Republicans have argued for months that Sullivan Jr. is a Democratic plant. Alaska's Division of Elections removed him from the ballot in June. A state court ordered him restored, and the Alaska Supreme Court upheld that ruling.

Democrats move to join the case

Peltola's campaign group, Alaskans for Mary, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee filed a motion to intervene overnight, according to Democracy Docket's Oct. 24 report. They called the suit an "extraordinary assault" on democracy.

They wrote that the DOJ's "assumption that every voter who casts a vote for Daniel J. Sullivan really meant to vote for Senator Sullivan is insulting to voters and irreconcilable with Alaska's ranked-choice voting procedures and the ballot's clear differentiation between the two candidates."

They also argue the requested investigation into what votes "were meant to be cast" is undefined and unworkable. Two Alaska voters, the League of Women Voters of Alaska and Common Cause have filed their own motion to intervene as defendants, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Peltola has called the suit "just flagrant, flagrant corruption." Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, said Friday that "Alaskans don't need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year's ballot."

Derek Muller, a University of Notre Dame law professor, wrote that the claim is "so absurdly thin" that there is "essentially no likelihood of success." David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation & Research said he could not recall an administration ever trying to stop certification of an election, "and certainly not 11 days before polls close."

The ballot dispute

Alaska ballots list "Dan S. Sullivan" as a registered Republican and incumbent. "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." appears without a party. CBS host Margaret Brennan noted that distinction to Blanche, and that early voting began Oct. 19.

Trump told reporters Sunday he considers the ballot illegal because it is unfair. "At least let him use the name Sen. Dan Sullivan as opposed to incumbent, because a lot of people don't know what incumbent means," he said.

On Thursday, Blanche said the department was not preparing to interfere in the midterms but declined to rule out what he called a doomsday scenario. "To say that there's no circumstances that we would ever do that. Of course, I'm not going to say that," he said.

Blanche was Trump's personal attorney before the president appointed him to lead the department.

Sullivan's campaign has taken a lower-key posture. Spokesman Nate Adams told Politico: "We'll let the DOJ complaint run its course," adding that Alaskans can tell the senator from his challenger.

What comes next

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason. The suit is conditional: it asks the court to block certification only if the count shows a Sullivan loss that meets the complaint's test. Alaska's ranked-choice tabulation after Nov. 3 will determine whether the DOJ's scenario exists at all.