Republican senator Dan Sullivan says he will accept Alaska election results

Senator Dan Sullivan, the Alaska Republican allegedly targeted in a ballot-stacking ploy by his Democratic opponent, Mary Peltola, told CNN this morning that he would accept the results of his upcoming election.

According to a recent New York Times investigation, aides from Peltola’s campaign recruited another man who shared Sullivan’s name to join the race in a ploy to peel away votes from the Republican incumbent.

Since those revelations, Republicans, including Donald Trump, have called for Peltola to be disqualified from the race and criminally prosecuted. Peltola has continued to deny any knowledge of such a scheme on the part of her campaign, recently telling a reporter at a campaign event that she had “no idea” if any of her staff were involved.

Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he would only accept the election results if he won, Sullivan responded: “No, I’m going to accept the election results.”

Earlier in his interview with Tapper, Sullivan also said he wasn’t focused on how Peltola’s campaign might be legally challenged. He was focused instead on winning the race outright. He nonetheless expressed doubt that Peltola had lacked any knowledge of the effort to put a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

“She’s continually lying to the Alaskan people,” Sullivan said. “And I guarantee you, she’s lying right now.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that Republicans tried to boost unviable Democratic candidates in the Alaska primaries as well. A Republican Super Pac boosted two candidates for Senate who did not live in Alaska, and praised them as “progressives” similar to Bernie Sanders.