Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is ramping up his investigation into an alleged Democratic effort to “confuse voters” in Alaska’s Senate race, but the push resurfaced his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election.
“The reported conspiracy to confuse voters in the Alaska Senate election has fractured confidence in our election system,” Johnson posted Friday morning on X. “I expect full compliance with my requests for records about this alleged scheme and applaud the @FBI and @TheJusticeDept for their prompt review of this matter.”
“The American people cannot let this story slip through the cracks and we will continue to pursue this investigation vigorously to get to the truth,” he added.
Johnson chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and his statement Thursday came on the deadline for responses to letters he sent Oct. 29 to three people reportedly tied to the effort.
The probe stems from an Oct. 28 New York Times report alleging that people working on behalf of Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee recruited people named “Dan Sullivan” to confuse voters. Dan Sullivan is also the name of Alaska’s Republican incumbent senator. Johnson’s office cited a Daily Mail report that the FBI and Justice Department are reviewing the matter.
Alaska will release another batch of votes Friday night that could show whether Peltola wins the nation’s last uncalled Senate race outright or whether it goes to ranked choice voting. The Democrat leads the incumbent Republican by nearly 6,000 votes and holds 48.92 percent of first-choice votes, according to Decision Desk HQ. She needs more than 50 percent to avoid a ranked choice tabulation.
DDHQ estimates about 55,000 votes remain to be counted, while The Associated Press puts the number closer to 40,000.
Johnson has his own history of undermining confidence in the election system.
In June 2022, the House Jan. 6 committee revealed text messages showing that Sean Riley, Johnson’s chief of staff, tried to arrange a handoff of fake pro-Trump elector slates from Michigan and Wisconsin to Vice President Mike Pence just minutes before he began counting the electoral votes that certified Joe Biden’s win.
The fake slates were central to Donald Trump’s plan to have Pence throw out legitimate electoral votes, a scheme Pence rejected as illegal.
Johnson called the revelation a “non-story.” He said he had “no idea” who delivered the package to his office and that his chief of staff “did the right thing” by trying to pass it along.
His renewed push on Alaska drew swift backlash on social media.
“You’re the guy who tried to deliver bogus Presidential Electors. Sit this one out,” fired back The Lincoln Project’s Reed Galen.
