Kamden Mulder writes for National Review Online about Democrats’ efforts to disguise their electoral candidates’ intentions.
The fight for election integrity is escaping the voting booth and spilling onto the campaign trail as Democrats get creative in their efforts to claw the Senate back from Republican control.
In Alaska, a copycat candidate who shares a name with incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan launched a campaign with the backing of a Democratic consultant that was, according to the state’s Division of Elections, intentionally designed to confuse voters about who they’d be casting their ballot for.
In other Republican-leaning states, like Nebraska and Montana, Democrats have taken to dressing their candidates up as independents and downplaying their left-wing policy commitments to avoid weighing them down with the party’s toxic brand.
Following the 2020 election, the idea of election integrity, especially in the context of President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign, left a bitter taste in many Americans’ mouths. Now, as a Republican-controlled Congress struggles to pass the Trump-backed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which attempts to ensure only American citizens vote in federal elections, tangible and productive victories feel few and far between.
Yet, Republicans have secured some unconventional, but important, election integrity wins in key Senate races across the U.S., as November elections rapidly approach and the fate of a Republican majority in both houses of Congress lies in the balance.
Earlier this month, the Division of Elections in Alaska threw the second Sullivan off the ballot after Alaska’s director of elections Carol Beecher found that he sought “to confuse [himself] with another candidate in the race, the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan.” Beecher pointed out that the candidate registered to run under the exact same name as the incumbent despite records showing no previous affiliation with that variation of the name. …
… The fake Sullivan’s initial approach was even more brazen: He requested to file under the name “Dan S. Sullivan” — a name identical to the incumbent’s — despite the fact his actual middle name begins with a “J.”
