Sen. Dan Sullivan’s same-named challenger sues to stay in Alaska primary race

A man with the same name and party affiliation as Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan challenged a decision by a top state elections official to disqualify his candidacy and remove him from the August primary ballot.

JUNEAU, Alaska — A man with the same name and party affiliation as Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan on Monday challenged a decision by a top state elections official to disqualify his candidacy and remove him from the August primary ballot.

Subscribe to read this story ad-free

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

A court filing, on behalf of the challenger Sullivan by his attorneys, said the decision by Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher disqualifying him violates state and federal law. It asks that he be placed on the ballot. Sullivan, a retired teacher from the small fishing community of Petersburg, has maintained that he’s a qualified candidate for U.S. Senate and that election officials lacked a legal basis to boot him from the ballot.

The U.S. Constitution lays out three exclusive qualifications for the Senate, addressing age, citizenship and residency, his attorneys wrote.