The Con Is on the Ballot This Year
Voters in Alaska walked into their primary today and found two Dan Sullivans waiting for them. One is the sitting Republican senator. The other is a retired schoolteacher from Petersburg whose candidacy state election officials tried to toss, calling it an attempt to confuse voters, before the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that he stays on the ballot, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
That is not a quirky local story. It is a preview of the entire 2026 election, which reporting from Axios describes as a watershed for primary meddling, mystery super PACs, and alleged straw candidates. The tricks are not new. The scale is.
Start in Pennsylvania’s 7th District, one of the tightest House races in the country. A candidate named Andrew Tupone is running there under the Green Party banner. The problem, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, is that the Green Party wants nothing to do with him. The party and a group of district voters are suing to remove him, noting he was a registered Republican from 2008 until this February. Tupone insists his candidacy is genuine. Maybe. But in a district the last election decided by roughly 4,000 votes, according to reporting from Armchair Lehigh Valley, even a fake Green candidate could hand the seat to the Republican incumbent.
Then there is the money. Federal Election Commission filings revealed in June that a group called Conservative Americans PAC seeded instant super PACs with $4.4 million to meddle in Democratic primaries, according to Punchbowl News. The groups carried names like Lead Left PAC and Progressive Champions PAC, designed to sound like allies while boosting candidates Republicans believed would be easier to beat. Lead Left alone spent $1.4 million in Pennsylvania’s 7th trying to sink Democrat Bob Brooks in his primary, according to CNN’s review of AdImpact data. He won anyway. Others were not so lucky.
Before we pretend this is a one party problem, it is not. Democratic Rep. Chuy García of Illinois timed his retirement so his chief of staff would face no primary, a stunt that earned him a formal bipartisan rebuke from the House, according to the Associated Press. Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana pulled the same move, withdrawing five minutes after his handpicked successor filed and three minutes before the deadline closed, according to The Hill. Democratic Senate candidates in Nebraska, Idaho and South Dakota dropped out late to clear lanes for independents, per Axios. Everyone is playing.
Here is why this should bother us. These schemes work precisely because our elections are so close. When control of Congress can hinge on a few thousand votes in a handful of districts, a confusing name, a fake party label, or a deceptive ad becomes a rational investment. And current law helps the con along. Super PACs formed in the final weeks before an election can spend millions without disclosing their donors until after the votes are counted. Legislation from Reps. Jason Crow and Chris DeLuzio would force disclosure of large donations within 48 hours in the closing stretch of a campaign, according to HuffPost. It deserves a vote.
Until then, the burden falls on us. When an ad appears from a group we have never heard of, we should ask who paid for it and why. When a candidate materializes from nowhere wearing a convenient label, we should check the receipts. The tricksters are counting on our inattention. This November, in a Congress this closely divided, attention is the one thing we cannot afford to skip. Go beyond the headlines…
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