Trump says the second Dan Sullivan on Alaska’s ballot is ‘illegal because it’s unfair’

Donald Trump has a new legal standard, and it fits in one sentence. On the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday, a reporter asked how a second Dan Sullivan on Alaska’s Senate ballot is illegal, not just unfair. “I think it’s illegal because it’s unfair.”

The warm-up was a complaint about the label. The Democrats “put another guy named Dan Sullivan” on the ballot, which he called “just outright cheating,” and he wants the senator listed as “Senator Dan Sullivan as opposed to incumbent because a lot of people don’t know what incumbent means.” The ballot already says incumbent. The state’s sample ballot lists “Sullivan, Dan S.” with “(Registered Republican) Incumbent” next to the name. The other Sullivan gets no party label at all.

Then the other man’s résumé: “never partook in any election,” and “I think he wasn’t even a voter.” Per the Anchorage Daily News, he has 40-plus years of registering to vote in Alaska; he switched from undeclared to Republican when he filed in May. Alaska’s courts let him stay on the ballot, and he took 2.5% in the August primary.

The Justice Department is now suing over it, a suit Trump has already said was his idea. Fairness, apparently, is whatever keeps the incumbent’s name in big letters.