Report: Peltola's campaign involved in effort to recruit second Dan Sullivan for Alaska Senate race

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Democratic campaign for Alaska's U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the chamber, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The newspaper obtained text messages between members of Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign discussing recruiting other people with the same name as the two-term Republican their candidate was running against. They eventually landed on a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg named Dan J. Sullivan. He made it through the state's August open primary and is one of four candidates on the ranked vote ballot for next Tuesday's general election.

Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola's campaign: “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.

He did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday from The Associated Press.

A top state elections official ruled Dan J. Sullivan ineligible for the ballot after he declared his candidacy, claiming it was “filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. The U.S. Constitution sets out only age, citizenship and residency requirements to run for the Senate.

President Donald Trump, who directed his Department of Justice to file a lawsuit last week pre-emptively contesting a Peltola win due to the presence of the second Dan Sullivan, called for legal penalties against Democrats over the situation: “Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done,” Trump wrote on his social media site on Wednesday.

“Alaskans deserve the truth,” said Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan’s campaign. “Mary Peltola, her campaign and her senior advisers colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit candidates to deliberately confuse and deceive voters.”

Peltola's campaign, in a statement Wednesday, said it “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.” They issued a similar statement in June after Sen. Sullivan questioned the other Sullivan's candidacy.

Democrats, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, have repeatedly denied that they were involved in any campaign trick.

“The DSCC is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan," the organization said in a statement Wednesday. The Times report said DSCC staffers were on texts with the Peltola campaign discussing the second Sullivan.

Legal experts said the report about Democrats appearing to recruit Dan J. Sullivan as a way to potentially confuse voters will have no impact on a lawsuit filed recently by the U.S. Department of Justice. President Donald Trump directed the department to file the lawsuit, which seeks to halt certification of a possible Peltola win, citing the presence of the second Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

“It’s a dirty campaign trick, and it’s good reason the Alaska Supreme Court should have permitted the candidate to have been removed from the ballot,” said Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor. “But now it’s in the hands of the voters, not litigation.”

It's not the first time a candidate's appearance on the Alaska ballot has been questioned. In 2024, the state Democratic Party sued to keep off the U.S. House ballot a man with no apparent ties to the state who is serving time in a federal prison in New York. A divided state Supreme Court allowed him to remain on the ballot. The man is running again this year, also in the House race, and is on the Nov. 3 ranked vote general election ballot.

The Times story about the recruitment of Dan J. Sullivan is based partly on interviews with Peltola's former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, who was fired in August amid a campaign shake-up. The newspaper said she tried to retract her comments last week. Efforts by the AP to reach Rios were not immediately successful.

As of Monday, 46,204 ballots had already been cast in Alaska, according to AP data. Sen. Sullivan is listed on the ballot as the Republican incumbent. The other Sullivan is listed as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation.

Riccardi reported from Denver.

FILE - Dan Sullivan, a candidate in Alaska's U.S. Senate race who shares a name with the incumbent seeking reelection, talks in front of a welcome sign near downtown Petersburg, Alaska, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)

In this photo shot with a smart phone, Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan poses ahead of a debate with Democrat Mary Peltola in Alaska's Senate race, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

In this photo shot with a smart phone, Democrat Mary Peltola smiles ahead of a debate with Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska's Senate race, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

A sample election ballot is displayed in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

NEW YORK (AP) — The bond market is swinging Wednesday, while U.S. stocks hold relatively steady after the Federal Reserve decided not to raise its main interest rate to bring down high inflation. The bond market's moves indicated traders see less of a chance of hikes to rates in the future, which would help with inflation but also hurt the economy.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and pulled within 1% of its all-time high, which was set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 84 points, or 0.2%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.

The action was much stronger in the bond market, where the yield on the two-year Treasury initially climbed after the Fed announced its decision to hold rates steady. It got above 4.79% after the Fed said two officials had actually voted to raise the federal funds rate, though their peers outweighed them.

The central bank last month raised its main interest rate for the first time in three years in hopes of slowing the high inflation that's discouraging Americans broadly.

But the two-year yield, which closely tracks expectations for Fed action, quickly dropped as low as 4.69% after Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said the central bank wants to take time to see how conditions play out before making its next move on rates.

He pointed to how rates for loans going to businesses and others across the economy have already climbed recently and how lenders and investors have become “more discerning.” That “monetary medicine” is “starting to work some,” he said.

Along with signals that the U.S. economy continues to grow, Warsh said that “broadly, these developments go in the direction” of helping with the Fed's two goals of a healthy economy and relatively low inflation.

Traders on Wall Street still see further increases to rates as likely, but they pared back bets on how many may come by next summer, according to data from CME Group.

Higher rates also push downward on stock prices, which raises the pressure on companies to deliver big growth in profits to counteract that. Several companies rallied Wednesday after joining the list of those beating analysts’ expectations for the summer.

GE HealthCare Technologies jumped 6.7% after delivering both profit and revenue for the summer that surpassed analysts’ expectations. It also raised its forecasts for revenue growth and other financial measures for the full year.

Etsy climbed 5.9% after its profit for the latest quarter blew past analysts’ forecasts. CEO Kruti Patel Goyal said the online marketplace saw growth in active buyers from prior-year levels for the first time in two years, while its active seller base grew at its fastest rate in two years.

Stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry were also relatively solid. They’ve stabilized this week following big swings on worries that high borrowing costs will undercut the boom in AI data centers largely built with borrowed money.

AI stocks got an additional boost after a major player in the industry, South Korea’s SK Hynix, soared 10.9% in Seoul following its latest profit report. The seller of memory chips said it’s in the midst of a virtuous cycle of rising AI usage, and it expects demand to continue to outpace supply through 2030.

On Wall Street, Micron Technology rose 5.8% and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500. It also sells memory for computers.

Outside of tech, Wendy's jumped 14.6% to $7.04 after Trian Fund Management, run by investor Nelson Peltz, offered to buy the chain for $7.35 per share in cash.

That helped offset a drop for Boston Scientific, which fell 4.2% even though the seller of medical devices reported a milder drop in profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It gave a forecast for profit in the current quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Robinhood Markets sank 3.6% after reporting weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi jumped 6.6% following SK Hynix’s leap. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1%, while France’s CAC 40 edged down by less than 0.1%.

AP Writer Elaine Lai contributed to this report.

FILE - Traders Joseph Stevens, left, and Robert Arciero work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file)

FILE - Trader Daniel Kryger works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Employees work near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the South Korean won, and the Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotations at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the South Korean won in a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer walks near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) in a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)