Two men running for office in Alaska are causing quite a bit of confusion in the GOP primary there by sharing the same name.
Both Dan Sullivan and Dan Sullivan are conservative Republican candidates, and though one is running for U.S. Senate and the other for the state’s lieutenant governor, their names are genuinely confusing GOP voters, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday night.
Recent polls show that about one third of likely Republican voters cannot tell one Dan Sullivan from the other, according to the Journal. What’s more, TV stations have mixed up photos of the two men during coverage.
In a further obstacle, both candidates have lost the opportunity to differentiate themselves on the ballot.
The Journal noted that both men could suffer: the Dan Sullivan running for Senate might be affected by the other Dan Sullivan’s aggressive stance toward unions. Meanwhile the Dan Sullivan running for lieutenant governor worries that his position further down the ballot itself will cause people to assume they’ve already voted for him.
The Senate hopeful told the newspaper he has a straightforward solution: “Just fill in the oval wherever you see the name Sullivan on the ballot.”
