President Donald Trump shared a wild rationale Monday for his administration’s preemptive legal challenge to the results of the highly contested Senate race in Alaska — one that assumes voters don’t know the meaning of the word “incumbent.”
At the direction of Trump, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit last month in an effort to prevent Alaska from certifying election results if Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) loses his reelection bid. At the core of the lawsuit was Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher and an independent also running for the Senate seat. His appearance on the ballot, the DOJ argued, could confuse voters and siphon votes from Sullivan, the Republican incumbent.
While the lawsuit was tossed out by a federal judge on Sunday, Trump has remained adamant that Daniel J. Sullivan’s appearance on the ballot was a Democratic-led criminal conspiracy, and told the New York Post’s Miranda Devine in an interview published Monday why he believed the appearance of two Sullivans on the ballot could confuse voters.
“If you look at the names, it’s Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., that’s the other guy. [His name] looks beautiful [on the ballot] and it’s on top. The other one says Dan Sullivan,” Trump said.
“Now, if you’re a voter, you have something about ‘Republican incumbent,’ tiny little letters on the bottom. A lot of people don’t know what that means. Incumbent — what does that mean? Incumbent. They have no idea.”
A sample ballot published by the Alaska Division of Elections shows both Sullivans appearing on the ballot: one appearing as “Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.,” and the other as “Sullivan, Dan S. (Registered Republican) Incumbent.”
“They cheat on ballots, they cheat on votes, they cheat! They cheat!” Trump continued. “If you have men in women’s sports, open borders for everyone, transgender everything, mutilation of your children and so many other things… if you had all of these things, the only way you can get elected is to cheat.”
While the DOJ’s lawsuit has been thrown out, the agency escalated its criminal probe after The New York Times reported that Democrats had recruited Daniel J. Sullivan, a claim that Mary Peltola — the Democratic Senate nominee from Alaska — has denied.