Dems' dire warnings about threats to democracy face an uncomfortable reckoning after Alaska election report

While prominent Democrats have spent years warning about threats to democracy, dozens of lawmakers and governors who endorsed Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola have declined to respond to Fox News Digital's questions about a reported effort to confuse voters and potentially cost Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan his seat.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that aides to Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola helped recruit a man named Dan Sullivan to run in an alleged effort to draw votes from Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan – though Peltola's campaign has denied involvement.

Fox News Digital reached out to 42 Democratic lawmakers and governors who endorsed Peltola to ask whether they would denounce the alleged effort to mislead Alaska voters.

As of publication, not a single one has responded.

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Sen. Richard Blumenthal, for instance, stated that "voter suppression is poisonous, it is toxic to our democracy," in 2022. His colleague, Sen. Chris Murphy, meanwhile, argued in April 2025 that "those of us who believe that the threat to democracy is urgent" need to "act like it."

And Sen. Cory Booker said in December 2016 that "protecting American democracy is a calling far higher than party politics."

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Despite their outspoken defenses of democracy and insistence that protecting it should transcend party politics, none of these lawmakers responded to Fox News Digital's questions about the alleged effort to mislead Alaska voters.

Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has made a name for himself by publicly breaking with his party on some issues, has also remained mum on the controversy.

Peltola has asserted that her campaign "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign." The Times, for its investigation, relied on text messages it obtained as well as interviews with former campaign staffers.

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Alaska on Oct. 22 seeking to delay certification of the state's Senate election if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses and votes cast for the other Sullivan could have changed the outcome, pending an investigation into whether voter confusion played a role in the result.

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Legal experts from across the political spectrum who previously spoke to Fox News Digital said that the case faces significant challenges, particularly as it relates to trying to infer voter intent from anonymous ballots and overcoming the sovereignty of states over their elections.

Among the other Democratic Senators reached by Fox News Digital were Sens.

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