On the eve of Election Day, President Donald Trump opened the door to something no president has the power to do on his own: redoing a U.S. Senate election.
In an interview with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine on the Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast, released Monday, Trump was asked about Alaska’s razor-close Senate race between Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman.
“I’d have to ask the lawyers”
Devine first asked whether Trump was confident the midterm elections would be secure. “No,” he answered, pointing straight to Alaska, where a second, unrelated candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is on the ballot.
Trump accused Democrats of seeking out a man with the senator’s name to confuse voters. “It’s all documented. It’s election fraud at the highest level. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said, naming Peltola, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Devine then asked directly: if the race is close and it is the one Senate seat that decides things, could he redo that election?
“I don’t know. I’d have to ask the lawyers, but I do think it’s a criminal act,” Trump replied.
Peltola has denied having anything to do with recruiting the second Sullivan.
Who is the “other” Dan Sullivan?
Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is a retired elementary school teacher, according to the New York Post. He won about 2.5% of the vote in Alaska’s top-four primary, enough to qualify for Tuesday’s ranked-choice general election. State election officials had tried to remove him from the ballot, but the Alaska Supreme Court ordered him back on.
The ballot lists the two men differently: one as “Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.” and the senator as “Sullivan, Dan S.” with his Republican registration and incumbent status noted. Because Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, voters can also rank more than one candidate.
A lawsuit already thrown out
Trump’s comments come a day after a federal judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit that sought to block Alaska from certifying the Senate result if Sullivan narrowly loses. The judge found the government had no workable way to investigate ballots while preserving the secrecy of the vote. The Justice Department has said it plans to appeal.
Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, last week declined to commit to certifying the result if Peltola wins, saying that if the state concludes things happened that were illegal, “we will act on that.”
Why it matters
Elections in the United States are run by the states, and critics were quick to point out that a president has no authority to order a new election. Still, with control of the Senate on the line and recent polls showing Alaska’s race close, Trump’s remark guarantees that all eyes will be on the state’s count, which can take days because ballots from remote areas arrive slowly.
Polls open Tuesday, November 3.