Lest We Forget, Peltola’s Stack the Ballot Plot Includes Gerald Heikes

Every time Ms. Peltola denies involvement in the project to stack the ballot, she makes it worse by deceiving people. She wanted plausible deniability. The Times spoke with Elisa Rios, Ms. Peltola’s former campaign manager and longtime aide, who went into depth on the plan. The Plan was internally called the ballot composition project. Her team worked on trying to recruit spoilers to run for the Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory.”

They got another man, Gerald Heikes, to join Dan J. Sullivan as a spoiler. Dan J. said he hates Donald Trump. As for Gerald Heikes, who is on the ballot to siphon votes from the incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, his campaign cannot be reached online. Clicking “Heikes 4 Senate” sends you to the “page cannot be reached” notice. Heikes thinks God wanted him to run.

Ms. Peltola was not directly involved in the project, Ms. Rios said, but she was “definitely aware.

 

The Operative the Peltola Team Hired

The endeavor involved secret trips to far-flung Alaskan communities and the appearance of a mysterious Midwestern operative named Kurtz, who called himself Zane. Kurtz traveled the state under his fake name and pitched would-be candidates over beers at brewpubs.

In addition to Daniel J. Sullivan, they recruited Gerald Heikes, who was also recruited into the race, according to The Times’s reporting. Polls give Ms. Peltola a strong chance of winning with the spoilers.

 

Rios Tried to Pull Out

This Times article is based on interviews over the past two months with 12 people who participated in or were told of the plan, or were would-be candidates that the team tried to recruit. The Times also obtained dozens of text messages that updated readers on the effort’s progress. The reporting included the extensive interviews with Ms. Rios, during which she shared details of the operation. She tried to rescind her confessions, but it was too late.

Dan J. Sullivan Hates Trump

“The operation began in the summer of 2025 to lure potential spoiler candidates onto the state’s unusual four-person ballot, Ms. Rios said. In one early meeting, she said, aides with the D.S.C.C. introduced a veteran Democratic operative named Jerid Kurtz to “Ms. Rios and Anton McParland, who at the time was Ms. Peltola’s chief of staff. Mr. Kurtz, a native of Ohio, was introduced as a specialist in secret ballot maneuvers, Ms. Rios said.

“Months later, in early 2026, Mr. Kurtz participated in a video call with members of the ballot composition team, Ms. Rios said. He told the group he had made contact with one of the Dan Sullivans. This Mr. Sullivan lived in the tiny village of Petersburg, and Mr. Kurtz described him as amenable to running if it would help Ms. Peltola, Ms. Rios said.

“Mr. Kurtz “told us when he found him,” she said. He said Mr. Sullivan “said he hated Trump, and if it was going to help Mary, he liked Mary. He didn’t have any interest in being a politician, but if this could help.”

Campaign Funds Used for Fraud

According to Federal Election Commission records, a pro-Peltola super PAC called 49th State PAC paid Wingspan Strategies, a firm co-owned by Mr. Kurtz, about $87,000 this fall. The PAC said in a statement this week it had “never hired or paid Jerid Kurtz for performing any services.”

Mr. Kurtz has gone silent.

 

The Other Spoiler on the Ballot

While the Justice Department is focused on the two Dan Sullivans, The Times found other Alaskans the team sought to recruit as spoilers. Not all of them, of course, shared a name with the Republican senator. Some would simply add more options to the ballot and potentially siphon support from the incumbent.

 

They Tried to Get a Man Who Once Ran for Office

Matthew Salisbury of Anchorage said he got a call out of the blue last December from an unfamiliar Google Voice number with an Ohio area code. He ran for office once before.

“I’m not naïve,” said Mr. Salisbury, who didn’t end up running for Senate. “I had to have that general idea that they’re not in it for me.”

When The Times sent Mr. Salisbury a photograph of Mr. Kurtz, Mr. Salisbury identified him as the man who called himself Zane.

 

Peltola’s People Made Fun of the Voters

In one exchange of text messages obtained by The Times, Peltola advisers seemed to make fun of voters while watching a focus group, surmising the participants would be susceptible to being tricked into voting for a ballot spoiler.

“Do we have a scheme for you,” wrote a consultant for the Peltola campaign. A pollster on the chat wrote that one voter seemed like the perfect audience “for our ballot strategy plan :)”

 

Gerald L. “Jerry” Heikes Ran After Meeting with a Peltola Operative

Mr. Heikes, a drywall contractor, said in an interview that he was recruited to run for Senate this spring “by a guy from the Midwest.” The man, whose name Mr. Heikes did not remember, first reached him on the phone, then met with him at a deli in his hometown of Palmer, Alaska. Mr. Heikes did not think he resembled the photo of Mr. Kurtz.

Heikes thought God wanted him to run.

 

DSCC’s Denial and the Fake MAGA Party

Even as the Peltola campaign and D.S.C.C. officials denied participation in the operation, the texts and documents reviewed by The Times show it involved the party’s Senate committee and its top law firm. At one point, when Peltola campaign aides toyed with an audacious idea to establish a right-wing state party that could challenge the incumbent senator, they contacted.

“Imagine if there was a MAGA party!” Mr. McParland, of the Peltola campaign, wrote in January.

“Smart,” replied Mr. Piatt, the D.S.C.C.’s director of campaigns. “Let’s see.”

Jacquelyn Lopez, an attorney with the Elias Law Group, the firm that represents both the committee and the Peltola campaign, was part of this effort, according to Ms. Rios. In a text message from April viewed by The Times, a campaign consultant asked Ms. Rios: “Do we need to follow up with Jackie about maga party stuff?”

In another message from that month that misspelled Mr. Kurtz’s first name, Mr. McParland wrote: “Jackie is calling Jarid.” Ms. Lopez did not respond to a request for comment.

The MAGA party plan fizzled out in May.

But in June, the D.S.C.C. celebrated alongside the campaign when an Alaska court cleared the way for the other Dan Sullivan to stay on the ballot.