ANCHORAGE – Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., the Petersburg candidate whose nearly identical name to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan became one of the most unusual features of Alaska’s Senate campaign, finished third in Tuesday’s primary and is in position to advance to the Nov. 3 general election alongside the senator. Alaska Division of Elections results, with 396 of 403 precincts reporting, showed former Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola leading the 16-candidate field with 63,810 votes, or 48.09%, followed by Dan S. Sullivan with 56,717, or 42.74%. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. was a distant third with 3,232 votes, or 2.44%, while Democrat David B. Leslie held the fourth and final qualifying position with 1,499 votes, or 1.13%.

The tally represented 132,696 votes cast in the Senate contest and remained unofficial, with seven precincts still outstanding. The result means November is set to feature both Sullivans, as well as Peltola and Leslie, rather than a conventional two-candidate Democratic-Republican matchup. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. appeared in the state results without a party abbreviation, despite his claims that he is a moderate Republican. Alaska election records separately listed him as a registered Republican, but his primary ballot line carried no Republican designation following litigation over his candidacy and how the Division of Elections would present his name. The incumbent was identified on the ballot as a registered Republican and incumbent.

That four-way advancement is a product of Alaska’s nonpartisan top-four primary, a system that works differently from the party primaries used in most states. Every candidate for an office appears on the same primary ballot regardless of party registration, and every voter receives that ballot regardless of the voter’s own affiliation. Voters choose only one candidate in the primary. The four candidates receiving the most votes then advance to the general election, so the primary does not select separate Democratic, Republican or third-party nominees. Alaska first used the system in 2022 after voters approved it in 2020. In November, the rules change: voters may rank the four qualifying candidates in order of preference, along with a write-in option, and ranked-choice tabulation is used if no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes. The lowest candidate is eliminated round by round and ballots for that candidate transfer to the next available ranked choice until a candidate reaches the required majority.

None of the Senate race’s explicitly third-party, nonpartisan or undeclared candidates other than the unusually unlabeled Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. reached the top four. Earl D. “Skip” Southworth, listed in the results as RAP and identified by the Division of Elections as registered with the Alaskan Party, successor of the dissolved Alaska Independence Party, led that group with 682 votes, or 0.51%. Libertarian Scott A. Kohlhaas followed with 640 votes, or 0.48%. Nonpartisan Reece J. Roberts received 473 votes, or 0.36%, while undeclared candidate Sidney “Sid” Hill received 421, or 0.32%. Green candidate Richard Grayson drew 340 votes, or 0.26%, and nonpartisan Shirley A. Saucerman received 246 votes, or 0.19%.

Alaska distinguishes among recognized political parties, political groups, nonpartisan registration and undeclared registration, so “independent” is not a single formal ballot category in the state. The Division lists Green as a political group, Libertarian as a recognized political party, and Nonpartisan and Undeclared as separate registration statuses. Together, those six candidates collected 2,802 votes, about 2.11% of the Senate vote in the reported tally, and all stood below Leslie’s fourth-place total. The remaining candidates outside the top four were Democrats Carol “Kitty” Hafner and Republicans Gerald Heikes, Heather McElwain, Dustin Thomas House Darden, Richard Mayers and Fred Grauberger.

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s survival therefore gives Alaska voters an especially unusual ranked-choice ballot in November, a leading Democrat, the Republican incumbent, another candidate sharing the incumbent’s first and last name, and a second Democrat. The namesake candidate, a retired teacher and former U.S. Forest Service worker, had earlier been removed from the ballot by state election officials after allegations that his candidacy was intended to confuse voters, allegations he denied. A Superior Court judge restored him, and the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the order requiring the state to place him on the ballot. Republicans had argued that the shared name could siphon votes from the incumbent, while Peltola’s campaign denied involvement in recruiting the challenger; federal authorities have also issued subpoenas as part of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his candidacy, according to Reuters. Whatever effect the name similarity had in the primary, Alaska’s system makes the immediate consequence mechanical, as third place, unlike California’s top-two primary is enough to advance to the General Election. If the none of the four withdraws, voters will see Mary Peltola, Dan S. Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. and David B. Leslie in the general election, where rankings and vote transfers will determine who wins Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat.