Schiff says Justice Department lacks standing in Alaska Senate suit; Blanche says it seeks only to preserve ballots

October 27, 2026

Top image: Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaking at the California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco in 2019. Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

By Rafael Quintero-Lind, Politics Reporter

California Sen. Adam Schiff took aim on Sunday at the Justice Department’s lawsuit over Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. The suit centers on a third candidate who shares a name with Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Department leaders say the case is narrow and grounded in federal law.

What Schiff said

“They don’t have standing to bring this kind of a suit,” Schiff told NBC News on Sunday, Fox News reported. He argued that Alaska’s courts had “already adjudicated this question.” “It’s not the federal government’s business to run Alaskan elections. It’s Alaska’s business to do that.” He said the suit has “no chance of succeeding” and accused administration officials of being “complicit” in an effort “to try to subvert the elections,” adding: “This time, with [Attorney General Todd] Blanche, they are all in on this disgraceful campaign.”

What the Justice Department says

Blanche rejected that description. The department does “not seek to stop any ballot from being cast or to stop the certification of Alaska’s election,” he said, according to Fox News. “This litigation seeks to ensure that after Alaskans cast their ballots, they are preserved in a manner so that only Alaska’s governing officials have the information necessary to make a determination as to whether Alaskan voters were confused” or misled, he said.

Blanche also said “the lawsuit was written by Justice Department attorneys and the Department did not coordinate with any campaign or candidate, but rather relied solely on federal law.” Earlier, he told NBC News that “it is not DOJ’s intention to” improperly interfere in the election, NBC reported.

The department’s filing argues that the candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan Jr. is designed to draw votes away from the senator. “The sole purpose of his candidacy is to benefit the Peltola campaign by reducing the number of votes for Senator Sullivan,” the filing says, according to Fox News. The department cites the National Voter Registration Act and a letter from Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher. A department spokesperson told NBC that the case involves a “frivolous candidacy.”

President Donald Trump has backed the suit. “I’m the one that said do it,” he said, according to NBC News. Asked about Schiff’s accusation, the White House pointed Fox to recent comments in which Trump said he “recommended” the department file the suit and that Sullivan Jr. had been put “up as a matter of confusion.” “I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump said.

What the suit asks for

The lawsuit, signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, asks a court to block certification if Sen. Sullivan loses but would have won with the votes cast for Sullivan Jr., NBC News reported. Alaska’s state superior court and the Alaska Supreme Court have both allowed Sullivan Jr. to stay on the ballot, Fox reported.

In the August primary, Democrat and former Rep. Mary Peltola received 49.5%, Sen. Sullivan 41.4% and Sullivan Jr. 2.5%, according to NBC. Gerald Heikes, a Republican, is the fourth candidate on the general-election ballot, Fox reported. NBC reported in July on a probe into Sullivan Jr. He denies wrongdoing. “I have every right to run,” he told NBC.

The Peltola campaign denies the department’s claim. On Friday, the campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee moved to intervene and asked the judge to dismiss the case, calling it “an unprecedented pre-emptive strike on democratic elections,” NBC News reported. No hearing had been set as of that report. The Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up, according to NBC.

Criticism has not come only from Democrats. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said, “The Department of Justice should never have filed this lawsuit,” NBC reported. Election-law experts Justin Levitt and David Becker also questioned the case in NBC’s reporting.

The California connection

Schiff’s comments came as the same Justice Department leadership pursues a separate fight over California ballots. In that case, the department has sought to have roughly 20,000 ballots from people it identified as possible noncitizens set aside, an effort the Chronicle has followed through the Ninth Circuit. Sen. Alex Padilla has sharply criticized that effort. The department says it is protecting the integrity of federal elections.

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