Former Rep. Mary Peltola, an Alaska Democrat and U.S. Senate candidate, speaks during the 2026 Alaska Fisheries Debate with Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, not pictured, in Kodiak, Alaska, U.S., Saturday, September 12, 2026.
Nathaniel Wilder | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The campaign of Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola has asked a federal judge to expedite a lawsuit against the Trump administration that could block certification of this election. Peltola’s campaign wants the judge to dismiss the complaint before Election Day.
A lawyer for Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said Sunday evening that they are “seriously concerned” that President Donald Trump and Attorney General Todd Blanche are using the lawsuit to “lay the groundwork for unlawful efforts to challenge a potential Peltola victory” if the suit remains pending on Nov. 3, Election Day.
Advocacy groups Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, which previously sought to intervene in the DOJ lawsuit, joined Peltola’s motion Monday seeking a speedy briefing and dismissal by Alaska District Court Judge Sharon Gleason.
The Justice Department filed the complaint Thursday. Trump said later in the day that he had ordered it.
The DOJ lawsuit asks a judge to bar Alaska from certifying the results of the Senate race if incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses by a margin that could be attributable to voters who mistakenly voted for another candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan.
The DOJ, in this case, would want an investigation to determine whether enough voters were confused by the men’s names to swing the vote in favor of another candidate, presumably former Rep. Peltola. The DOJ claims that Daniel J. Sullivan’s “sole purpose” in running “is to benefit Peltola’s campaign by reducing the number of votes for Senator Sullivan.”
The winner of the race could determine which party has a majority in the Senate starting in January.
Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC, in their court filing, requested that a judge order the DOJ to respond to their motion to intervene in the case and their motion to dismiss the lawsuit by 5 p.m. Alaska time on Tuesday, and to order a response to that response by Wednesday.
“And dismiss the case this week,” the motion states.
“The DOJ filed this complaint in the midst of the ongoing general election, less than two weeks before Election Day, raising issues governed exclusively by state law that were finally resolved by the Alaska Supreme Court months ago,” the filing states.
“The DOJ is seeking an unprecedented order preventing certification of the U.S. Senate election if the candidate favored by the President narrowly loses,” the filing said.
“As reflected in the proposed Motion to Dismiss, the DOJ’s assertions are entirely without legal merit,” the filing states.
“The Court should not allow this lawsuit to hang like a sword of Damocles over the ongoing election, lending false legitimacy to the President and Attorney General’s continued efforts to spread false narratives about the Alaska election as voting continues and results begin to be tabulated next week.”
The DOJ declined to comment on the new motion, but pointed to an X message from Blanche on Sunday.
“The Department of Justice is not seeking to prevent a vote from taking place or prevent the certification of the Alaska election,” Blanche said. “This litigation is intended to ensure that once Alaskans vote, they are preserved so that only Alaska government officials have the information necessary to determine whether Alaska voters were confused or misled.”
“The lawsuit was written by Justice Department lawyers and the department did not coordinate with any campaign or candidate, but instead relied solely on federal law,” Blanche said.
The department did not explain how an investigation prior to certification of the election could determine whether a voter did not know which Sullivan they were voting for. The ballot for the election lists Sen. Sullivan – whose name is Dan S. Sullivan – as an incumbent and a Republican. There are no words next to the name of the other candidate, whose name is spelled Daniel J. Sullivan.
Peltola told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace on Friday evening that the DOJ’s lawsuit “is exactly the kind of corruption that Alaskans have had enough of.”
“This is clearly a very desperate attempt to cling to power, using his allies in Washington, D.C., to rig the system even further,” Peltola said.
Peltola’s campaign on Sunday said that on Saturday evening, she and her family “sustained minor injuries” that required medical treatment after a vehicle carrying them en route to the Alaska Federation of Natives’ annual banquet was struck by another driver.
As a result, Peltola posted events in Fairbanks and Bethel on Sunday and Monday. The campaign said these events would be postponed.
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