What A Day: Will the Real Dan Sullivan Please Stand Up?

Two Republicans with the same name are running for Senate in Alaska, in a cartoonish debacle that could hand Democrats a major win in the midterms.

• Republicans in Alaska head to the polls today with a head-scratching decision to make: Should they vote for Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. or Daniel S. Sullivan for Senate?

• The latter candidate is the Dan Sullivan you might know — an incumbent MAGA politician who, in recent months, has been losing his mind over the fact that a man with the same name is running against him. Even President Donald Trump and his allies are panicking about the potential fallout from this real-life “Spider-Man Pointing at Spider-Man” meme situation.

• What’s the big deal? Well… the race could determine who controls the Senate in November. More than a dozen candidates are on the same ballot in this primary, and the top four advance to the general. The GOP worries that both Sullivans could advance (along with Democratic frontrunner Mary Peltola) and confuse voters, giving Democrats an edge.

• This disorienting race has sparked an unprecedented national drama. The right accuses not-senator Dan Sullivan, a retired teacher with no political experience, of being a spoiler candidate who is trying to confuse voters.

• So, Republicans tried to kick him out of the race. State election officials booted him off the ballot in June, alleging that he wasn’t running in good faith. After the Alaska Supreme Court overruled that decision, the Trump administration launched a federal investigation into the challenger’s campaign.

• “Everybody in Alaska knows I’m Dan Sullivan-R. So he’s trying to do that. Why?” the incumbent senator complained. “He’s not an R. He’s purposely trying to trick my constituents to rig the election for Peltola.”

• For what it’s worth, the new Sullivan insists he isn’t a Democrat. But a fresh profile in the New York Times won’t help quiet the accusations: He voted Democratic in the last three presidential elections, cast ballots for Peltola when she ran for the House, and attended a No Kings protest. He also has a fridge magnet of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara… but insists that he isn’t sure how it got there. (Despite all that, Sullivan describes himself as a moderate Republican.)

Daniel J. Sullivan’s quirky campaign could reveal how Republican voters feel about Donald Trump right now.

• Trump won Alaska by 13 points in 2024. His approval ratings have plummeted since, due to rising gas prices, the ongoing war in Iran, and other controversies. Only 33 percent of Americans approve of Trump, the lowest of his presidency, according to a new poll.

• The president believes he still has influence over Alaskans, urging voters via social media to “Be careful, VOTE FOR THE REAL DAN SULLIVAN TODAY.” He accused the “Crooked, Radical Left” of boosting the retired teacher.

• The not-senator likely sees Trump’s endorsement of his opponent as an advantage; he hopes to win over voters who are frustrated with the president.

• “Senator Sullivan has decided that he is so afraid of a 69 year old retired teacher and long time Alaskan that he needs to call in Donald Trump to help with his intimidation campaign,” the not-senator wrote on Facebook last night.

• The post continues: “He seeks the praise of the President who is: more interested in building a ballroom than building our economy” and is “more interested in vanity memorials than improving the everyday lives of ordinary Americans.”

What’s more, Dan J. won’t stop trolling the current senator: “I’ve been Dan Sullivan longer than you’ve been Dan Sullivan,” he told the Times.

The Trump administration is moving to allow logging and construction on about 45 million acres of national forests that had been protected for decades. Trump’s team says repealing the “roadless rule” will help prevent forest fires, but Republican states have been trying to scrap the rule for years, arguing that it hinders economic development. Environmentalists warn that the move would destroy untouched habitats and endanger drinking supplies. Advocacy groups are expected to sue to stop the rollback.

The U.S. and Iran aren’t negotiating to end the war and have no plans to, Donald Trump wrote on social media today. He also claimed the Strait of Hormuz is “open and operating,” and posted an image that depicts the strait as “new U.S. territory.” Iran, however, said that the strait remains closed. Only a handful of ships have passed through the strait in recent days, according to trackers.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro challenged a judge’s order to release a woman, who was charged with vandalizing the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, while she awaits trial. Federal prosecutors accused the woman, Melissa Farris, of dumping detergent into the fountain (effectively creating a giant bubble bath) and spray-painting the memorial. Prosecutors alleged today that she has “exceptionally high risk of flight.”

OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teens today, a highly anticipated chatbot with stronger safety settings, which is also intended to help students work through problems instead of simply answering homework questions. One wild feature: The chatbot will predict a users’ age based on its messages, and automatically set up an account with Teen restrictions if they’re deemed under 18 years old. Adults can verify their age if mistaken for a teen.

A Palestinian American man returned to his home in the occupied West Bank today after it had been besieged by Israeli settlers. When he arrived, however, he was approached by an Israeli settler who began filming him: “You came to make a mess, ha?” the settler said in Hebrew, according to Reuters. The settler left after being approached by Israeli soldiers.

Alan Dershowitz still talks about his legendary falling out with Larry David five years ago “as if it were yesterday,” The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich writes in his profile of the infamous Epstein lawyer. “I don’t know why he’s still thinking and talking about me,” David told Leibovich.

Comedian Rosie O’Donnell made her late night return while filling in for Jimmy Kimmel, but she never once uttered Donald Trump’s name. Even better: She called him “Mango Mussolini” and ended her set with a taunt: “You know he’s in the White House crying because I haven’t mentioned him.”

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani finally got himself a bike helmet, after New Yorkers complained that he wouldn’t wear one while biking around the city. “I’m listening, I’m learning,” Mamdani wrote on Instagram. “Safety first, NYC.”

More than 2,000 sets of twins (and triplets, quadruplets, and so on) attended the annual Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio over the weekend. Apparently, some twins have a go-to joke at the festival: Have you seen anyone who looks like me?

Two men drove a 90-year-old woman seven hours across Canada to her birthday party, after their flight was canceled due to wildfire smoke. “They were very kind and considerate and polite to me all the way,” the woman said. “It had to come from somewhere, so I’m giving their moms the credit.”

Do you like guinea pigs? You’ll love this piece about The Guinea Pig Sanctuary in Massachusetts, which cares for up to 400 little fellas at a time. “Maui is friendly and gives kisses. Gritty is older, but shy. Rio has spunk and likes to run around,” the Associated Press writes. “They all remember the smell of their caretakers and gravitate toward their favorites.”

I also enjoyed this guide in the Washington Post (free link provided!) that helps you decide which native plants you can grow that would help local bird, butterfly, and bee populations. Go touch some grass, people!