Judge fast-tracks Democrats’ bid to dismiss Trump’s Alaska lawsuit

A federal judge expedited Democrats’ effort to dismiss the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) preemptive legal challenge to Alaska’s Senate election results.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason’s order Monday fast-tracks a possible ruling on a request from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the campaign of Democratic nominee Mary Peltola that Gleason dismiss the DOJ’s suit before Election Day, Nov. 3.

The DOJ’s suit, which President Donald Trump said he ordered the department to file, seeks a court order requiring the state to set aside the results of the Senate race if anyone other than incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R) wins. It asserts that voter confusion around the appearance of two Dan Sullivans on this year’s ballot will undermine the election’s integrity.

While expediting Democrats’ motion to dismiss, which is also a motion to intervene in the case, Gleason appeared deeply skeptical of the timing of the DOJ’s lawsuit. The judge stressed that the department filed its complaint as voting was underway and four months after the Alaska Supreme Court permitted Daniel J. Sullivan, who is also running as a Republican, to appear on this year’s ballot.

“After Alaskans had already begun casting their ballots for the November 2026 election—and nearly four months after the Alaska Supreme Court directed the Division of Elections to include Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot for the upcoming United States Senate election—the United States initiated this action on October 22, 2026,” Gleason, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in her order Monday.

Alongside Gleason’s order, Carol Beecher, Alaska’s elections director and a defendant in the DOJ’s case, asked the judge to dismiss the DOJ’s suit “because the complaint has no legal basis” and because it seeks to cast doubt on the integrity of Alaska’s elections.

“The complaint requests drastic federal court interference in Alaska’s administration of this election: it asks the Court to prevent the Division from certifying the result if a specific candidate ‘does not win,’ pending ‘an investigation’ into the intent of voters who vote for a different candidate,” Beecher wrote in her motion to dismiss.

“This lawsuit and this requested relief cast a cloud over Alaska’s election that is contrary to the public interest and that the Court should not allow to linger,” she added.

Beecher asked Gleason to issue an order by Nov. 2.

The winner of the Alaska race could determine which party holds a majority in the Senate starting in January.