The Trump administration has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block Alaska from certifying the results of its U.S. Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, a move that could kick off the kind of battle between Washington and the states over election certification that many voting rights advocates have feared, the Associated Press reports.
The Department of Justice filed the suit Thursday in federal court in Alaska. It asks the court to stop the state from certifying a win by Democrat Mary Peltola as long as a second candidate named Sullivan remains on the ballot.
Why there are two Sullivans
Also on the Alaska ballot is Daniel J. Sullivan, a resident of the small fishing community of Petersburg. He has said he decided to run on his own. Republicans have contended he is a Democratic plant meant to siphon votes away from the senator.
Many in both parties believe control of the Senate could come down to Alaska, where Sen. Sullivan faces Peltola.
The courts and Alaska’s own officials already weighed in
The Alaska Supreme Court rejected earlier Republican efforts to remove the other Sullivan from the ballot. The state’s Republican officials decided how he would be listed: he will appear without a party designation next to his name, while the senator will be listed as the Republican incumbent. Alaska’s ranked choice voting system also lets voters select both men if they are confused.
Even so, the Justice Department’s complaint argues that federal law requires states to protect the integrity of federal elections. “The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska,” the lawsuit says.
“The statute simply doesn’t let the Department of Justice enjoin certification”
Legal experts are skeptical. Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame, told the AP the lawsuit would likely only come into play if Republicans narrowly lose the Alaska race, and that it does not seem to have legal merit. “The statute simply doesn’t let the Department of Justice enjoin certification,” he said.
Hours after a promise not to interfere
The suit landed the same day Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters in Virginia that federal intervention in certification was unlikely outside of extreme circumstances. “It is not DOJ’s intention to and it’s never our intention to improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process,” Blanche said. According to The Hill, Blanche did not dismiss the idea that there are hypothetical “scenarios” in which the department could block the certification of votes.
A pattern ahead of Nov. 3
The AP notes that the Trump Justice Department has increasingly been used to bolster the president’s political operation, targeting his enemies and suing Democratic-controlled states in the run-up to the election. NBC News reported that the department this week also asked an appeals court to step into its lawsuit seeking to temporarily block California from counting more than 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters the administration says are likely not U.S. citizens.
Democrats and many voting rights advocates have long worried that the administration would try to block certification of elections the president’s party loses, much as Trump unsuccessfully tried to do after he lost the 2020 presidential election. With Election Day 11 days away, the Alaska lawsuit is the clearest sign yet that the fight over who certifies the results may already have begun.