The Republican incumbent had previously slammed Alaska Democrats for showing "disdain" for voters and said Democratic candidate Mary Peltola is "not fit for office" after a bombshell New York Times report alleged her campaign worked with national Democrats to recruit a "Decoy Dan" for the ballot.
But Sullivan recently told CNN that he will accept the results of Tuesday's election.
Washington Times columnist Robert Knight, who has advocated for reforms to prevent election fraud since the 2020 presidential election, is disappointed in Sullivan's response.
"I'd rather he said, 'If this happens, that people were fooled and wanted to vote for me and couldn't because they had the fake name on there that fooled them, I'm going to fight this to the last inch,'" Knight tells American Family News (AFN). "That's what he should say."
The controversy centers on efforts to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher whose name resembles the incumbent's. Peltola (pictured left) has repeatedly denied knowing about the effort, saying at a Juneau rally that she "knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot except for me and the incumbent" and adding, "I am not interested in tricking voters."
She has called the controversy a distraction from issues such as affordability.
Sullivan, meanwhile, has characterized the effort as an attempt to confuse voters and siphon votes away from him. He called it "the biggest scandal in Alaskan electoral history by far" and accused Peltola and Democratic operatives of working to "cheat" voters.
Alaska voters have expressed mixed reactions, and many say the allegations have influenced their views.
One independent voter who had already voted for Peltola said the allegations bothered him because they could give political opponents "ammunition" to attack her. He also objected to "shenanigans on either side" intended to confuse voters.
Another voter, an independent who leans Republican, said the controversy made him more favorable toward Sullivan and that Peltola should leave the race.
Fox News spoke with an unnamed man who said he had considered voting for Peltola but switched to Sullivan after learning about the alleged recruitment effort. He called it "disgusting" and "so sleazy." The woman accompanying him described it as "unethical."
The controversy has also drawn federal scrutiny. Department of Justice lawyers have been laying the groundwork to challenge the results if votes for the second Dan Sullivan affect the outcome. The department also plans to appeal a federal judge's rejection of its request to delay certification of the election results.
However, experts do not generally expect the "Decoy Dan" candidacy to determine the outcome of the election. Alaska's ranked-choice voting system, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference rather than choosing just one, substantially reduces the possibility that voters who confuse the two candidates will inadvertently take votes away from the incumbent.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and those ballots are counted for each voter's next choice until someone has a majority.
Still, Knight does not think Sullivan should throw in the towel.
"What's happening in Alaska is a disgrace," he says. "They're trying to confuse voters, not offer them more choices, and they're so brazen about it. I hope Alaskans can see through it and not leave us with a situation where someone got elected because of fraud."
Peltola had a narrow polling advantage heading into Election Day, but RealClearPolitics has classified the race as a toss-up.
