Chuck Schumer's Super PAC swore it had nothing to do with Decoy Dan Sullivan.
Then the Justice Department sent FBI agents and thirty subpoenas into Alaska within twenty four hours.
Now one ad from that same group might prove the denial was a lie.
DOJ Election Fraud Investigation Sends FBI Agents Into the Alaska Senate Race
Alaska US Attorney Michael Heyman brought FBI officials and Alaska State Troopers with him to a Friday press conference.
He announced a criminal investigation into Daniel J Sullivan – the retired schoolteacher running for Senate under the exact same name as Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
"We are taking that extremely seriously," Heyman said of the reporting that sparked the probe.
That report from The New York Times – cited in the DOJ's amended lawsuit – found that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and senior aides to Democrat Mary Peltola worked to recruit candidates who could pull votes away from Sen. Sullivan, a scheme investigators say centered on Daniel J Sullivan specifically.
The Justice Department had already sued Alaska election officials on October 22, seeking to block certification if Sen. Sullivan loses by fewer votes than the decoy pulls in.
The Jack Smith Trump Indictment Just Became the Blueprint Against Democrats
Former FEC commissioner Hans von Spakovsky says the legal road map for this case already exists.
Jack Smith charged Donald Trump in 2023 with conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy against rights over the 2020 election.
"Jack Smith and Democrats, they set the precedent for the kind of investigation Justice Department is doing now," von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital.
Von Spakovsky said the case gets stronger fast if investigators find the operatives paid Daniel J Sullivan or ran his campaign for him.
That turns what von Spakovsky calls a "dirty trick" into an illegal in kind contribution, and it hands prosecutors a federal reporting violation to stack on top of it.
A Florida Ghost Candidate Scheme Already Landed a Republican in Jail
This is not a new tactic, and it has already ended in handcuffs once before.
Former Florida state Sen. Frank Artiles paid a ghost candidate more than forty thousand dollars to run in a 2020 state Senate race against a heavily favored Democratic candidate.
A jury convicted Artiles on three of four counts in September 2024.
A judge sentenced him to sixty days in jail and five years of probation, a sentence Artiles is now appealing.
Ghost candidate schemes are felonies, and prosecutors do not care which party built the last one.
Democrats just built one in Alaska, and now they get to find out whether the law applies to them too.
Ron Johnson Demanded Answers From Peltola's Former Aides
Sen. Ron Johnson is not waiting on the Justice Department to finish its work.
His Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is reviewing the Alaska race under Senate Resolution 94.
Johnson's office sent records preservation letters on October 29 to five people tied to the scheme.
The list includes Peltola's former campaign manager Elisa Rios, her former chief of staff Anton McParland, a self-described ballot strategist named Jerid Kurtz, an attorney from the Elias Law Group, and a DSCC employee.
All five have until November 12 to respond.
Johnson's letter describes the scheme as "a disturbing effort to undermine the integrity of the 2026 U.S. Senate election in Alaska."
He said the conduct the New York Times described, if true, amounts to "outrageous and possibly criminal behavior on the part of Democrat operatives."
Chuck Schumer's Super PAC Denied Ties Months Before the Ad Proved Otherwise
Back in June, a spokesman for Schumer's Senate Majority PAC flatly denied any connection to Dan J Sullivan's campaign.
"Neither Senate Majority PAC nor Majority Forward has ever communicated with Dan J. Sullivan," the spokesman said.
Majority Forward is the super PAC's nonprofit arm, and it started airing a TV ad attacking the real Sen. Dan Sullivan less than two weeks later.
The ad's pitchman was a mover named Alan Harris, and he had personally delivered Daniel J Sullivan's candidacy paperwork to state election officials that same June.
Harris's moving company is registered to the same Anchorage address as Amber Lee – the Democratic strategist hired to advise Decoy Dan's campaign, and Harris's romantic partner.
You do not put a man on camera attacking a sitting senator while his partner is advising the decoy running against that senator and call it a coincidence.
Every excuse Democrats have floated – confusion, coincidence, a retired teacher who just happened to share a name with a sitting senator – gets a lot harder to believe once Decoy Dan's adviser and the group's TV pitchman turn out to share a home address.
If investigators prove any of these operatives paid for Decoy Dan's campaign or ran it for him, Schumer's allies are not just facing bad headlines.
They are facing the same conspiracy charges Democrats cheered when Jack Smith pointed them at Trump.
Democrats insisted for three straight years that those statutes existed to protect elections from exactly this kind of scheme.
Alaskans vote in two days, and Schumer's political network is about to find out if a law it cheered against Trump cuts both ways.
Sources:
- Elaine Mallon, "Trump Prosecutions Under Biden Set Precedent for DOJ's Alaska Decoy Dan Probe, Ex-FEC Chair Says," Fox News, October 31, 2026.
- The Federalist, "Johnson Demands Records Over Alaska's Senate Race Scandal," The Federalist, October 30, 2026.
- Alana Goodman and Collin Anderson, "Chuck Schumer Denied Ties to Decoy Dan Sullivan Then Featured the Sham Alaska Senate Candidate's Campaign Rep in an Ad," Washington Free Beacon, July 24, 2026.
- Tampa Bay Times Staff, "Former Florida Senator Sentenced 60 Days in Ghost Candidate Case," Tampa Bay Times, November 18, 2024.
- WSVN Staff, "Former State Sen. Frank Artiles Sentenced to Five Years Probation, 60 Days in Jail After Being Convicted of Breaking Election Law," WSVN, November 18, 2024.
- The Daily Wire, "Decoy Dan Accused of Illegal Coordination in Critical Senate Race," The Daily Wire, September 8, 2026.
