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Races between the candidates for U.S. Senate in Alaska and Mississippi are separated by razor-thin margins days after polls closed in the crucial midterm elections.
In Mississippi, where 95.6% of the votes have been counted, according to the Associated Press, Democratic candidate Scott Colom leads incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., 464,926 votes to 463,788, as of Thursday morning.
In Alaska, former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, leads incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, by less than 700 votes.
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While Alaska still has a quarter of its votes to count, according to the AP, if the gap between Peltola and Sullivan remains this slim, the introduction of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan will loom large in post-election analyses.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and former Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat from Alaska and U.S. Senate candidate, right, raise paddles during the 2026 Alaska Fisheries Debate in Kodiak, Alaska, on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In July, the U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation into Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher who entered the Senate race in May.
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An October report from The New York Times said Daniel J. Sullivan had met with Democratic operatives and members of Peltola’s campaign staff to encourage him to run. Peltola has denied any involvement in the scheme.
One voter interviewed after he cast his ballot Tuesday revealed that he believed he accidentally voted for the wrong Dan Sullivan.
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“I don’t remember seeing the other Dan Sullivan, I totally forgot to look for two Dan Sullivans,” the bewildered voter revealed. “I definitely intended to vote for the real Dan Sullivan.”
As of Thursday morning, Daniel J. Sullivan, aka “Decoy Dan,” had garnered 3,600 votes from Alaskans, a number that’s more than five times larger than the 637-vote margin separating Sen. Sullivan and Peltola.
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Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) (Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images) ((Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) (Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images))
Under Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, if no candidate achieves a 50% share of the vote, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and voters who chose that candidate first will have their votes redirected to their second choice.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the saga, demanding Daniel J. Sullivan’s votes be given to Sen. Sullivan.
“The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other ‘slug’ that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over – He easily wins,” Trump wrote in a Thursday morning post on Truth Social.
“There is no other fair solution! President DJT” he concluded.
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Mary Peltola launches her campaign as a Democratic candidate for Senate in Anchorage, Alaska, on Jan. 17, 2026. (Reuters)
In Mississippi, officials are still waiting to receive a batch of 3,600 mail-in ballots, according to a statement from Secretary of State Michael Watson. The state allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they’re received within five business days of the election, provided they were postmarked with a date of the election day or earlier.
NBC News’ Decision Desk pegs the remaining ballots to be counted at 45,000.
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Sen. Cindy-Hyde Smith, R-Miss., clinched the GOP Senate nomination in Mississippi as she eyes a second term in the upper chamber. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mississippi has no formal process for recounts, making a legal fight over the results increasingly likely.
“We will protect the process of this election, we’ll protect the integrity of this election,” Colom told reporters Wednesday, adding that he had “an army of lawyers” preparing for a court battle, Mississippi Public Broadcasting reported.
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Hyde-Smith’s team, meanwhile, remains assured that the sitting senator will prevail.
“Our campaign is closely monitoring the remaining count,” campaign manager Scott Monssen told MPB in a statement. “We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith,” he concluded.
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Fox News Digital reached out to all five campaigns for further comment.