Terrified Ted Cruz seethes over Dems' 'dirty trick' making his 'blood boil'

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is up in arms about Alaska’s Senate race, and his blood is boiling.

In an email sent on Friday under Cruz’s name by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Texas Republican claimed “just hundreds of votes” separate Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola.

“That’s not a lead. That’s a coin flip,” the email said. “We cannot afford to lose one more conservative voice in the Senate.”

Peltola is actually ahead by 5,800 votes in the nation’s last uncalled Senate race, according to The Associated Press. With 88 percent of the vote counted, she has 49.08 percent of first-choice votes.

Cruz pinned the blame on a second candidate on the ballot, independent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.

“Here’s what makes my blood boil: Democrats played a dirty trick in this race,” Cruz wrote. “They recruited a second ‘Dan Sullivan’ to get on the ballot, a fake candidate with the same name with ties to the Democrats meant to confuse voters and pull votes away from the real one.”

“If the fake weren’t in this race, Dan would be leading right now,” he added.

The numbers don’t back that up. Even if every one of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s 4,199 votes went to the senator, Peltola would still lead by about 1,600, according to the AP count. A New York Times analysis also found that Peltola, not the incumbent, was the second choice for most of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s voters. That suggests few of them meant to vote for the senator.

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. drew fewer votes than Gerald Heikes, a long-shot Republican in the race who has 5,490.

The alleged scheme traces back to an Oct. 28 New York Times report. It alleged that people working for Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee recruited people named Dan Sullivan to confuse voters. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has opened a Senate investigation, and the FBI and Justice Department are reportedly reviewing the matter.

The Trump administration’s Justice Department also sued to block Alaska from certifying the race if Sullivan lost, arguing that Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s name would confuse voters. U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason threw out the suit, finding the government offered “no workable plan” to investigate voter intent while keeping ballots secret. The DOJ has appealed.

Cruz said he campaigned for Sullivan in Alaska before Election Day because “I knew what they were up to.”

Alaska is set to release another batch of results Friday night. They could show whether Peltola clears 50 percent and wins outright, or whether the race goes to ranked choice tabulation.