Dan Sullivan uses personal smears to hide energy failures
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
In a testy Senate debate, Dan Sullivan attacked Mary Peltola's character to distract from soaring energy costs and the corporate interests driving them.
The "Debate for the State" on October 15, 2026, was not a debate. It was a choreographed exercise in distraction. While Alaskans struggle to heat their homes, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan spent his time policing the use of notecards. He wants you to look at Mary Peltola’s "cue cards" so you do not look at his record. Sullivan is wrong to use personal smears to mask a policy of deregulation that serves corporate energy giants while leaving working families to freeze.
The theater of the cue card
Fox News focused on the optics of the night. They highlighted how Mary Peltola used notecards with bullet points. Sullivan took to X to mock her, writing, "Really, Mary? Reading off a script? You can't cue-card your way through the Senate." This is a classic tactic. When the incumbent cannot defend the cost of living, he attacks the challenger's competence.
This mirrors the 2024 United States presidential election, where scripted talking points and aggressive personal accusations overshadowed substantive debate on affordability. Sullivan is playing the same game. He cited a New York Times piece claiming employees had quit while working for Peltola. He tried to make the election about her "worst day."
The strongest case for Sullivan is that he is a steady hand for national security. His supporters, like missile defense worker Loren Baxter, appreciate his "military perspective" and his work to repeal Biden-era executive orders. But national security is a hollow shield when your own constituents are broke. A steady hand at the helm does not matter if the ship is sailing toward a cliff of unaffordable energy.
The human cost of the ledger
The most honest moment of the night came when the candidates fought over military pay. Sullivan claimed Peltola voted against a pay raise for military officials. Peltola hit back with the reality of the working class. She stated, "I have two sons who were enlisted-4 and enlisted-5 when they got out," and that "They were both on food stamps."
She noted she voted for a pay raise that service members "hadn't had in 10 years." This is the ledger my generation carries. It is the gap between what the powerful say and what the vulnerable experience. The 2008 financial crisis shares a mechanism with this story. Concentrated interests in the financial sector leveraged their power to create a system that devastated workers and vulnerable populations, leaving a long-term ledger of debt and instability.
Sullivan’s response to the human toll is always a pivot. When asked about President Donald Trump's disparagement of women, Sullivan said, "I have denounced the president's language on these kinds of issues." This is the hallmark of the Trump-Pence administration: maintaining a public alignment with a leader whose rhetoric is denounced in name but not in practice.
Energy dominance for whom
The debate turned to Alaska's energy future, and the lies grew louder. AP News reported Peltola saying, "This war is driving up our energy bills and hurting Alaskans with no end in sight." She argued that Alaska should not be "promoting falsehoods that just have no substance."
She was talking about the gap between Trump's promises and the truth. Moderators noted that South Korea had not committed to investing in Alaska's liquefied natural gas pipeline despite Trump's public promotion. Sullivan tried to claim funding was coming through a broader trade agreement.
The Dossier reveals the truth behind "National Energy Dominance Month." The administration boasts of the "largest oil deal in all of human history" and the repeal of the Endangerment Finding. These are wins for oil executives, not for the person paying a heating bill in Anchorage. Even the "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" is a corporate promise, not a law.
This pattern of mutual accusations of dishonesty is a ghost from the 2016 United States presidential election. It is designed to make voters exhausted. When we are exhausted, we stop asking who is profiting from the crisis.
Sullivan is betting that a few jabs about "Lower 48 handlers" will hide the fact that he serves the concentrated interests of the energy sector. He is betting that Alaskans will forget the food stamps and remember the cue cards. He is wrong.
The evidence shows a senator who prefers the theater of the smear to the hard work of protecting consumers. Sullivan has spent this race attacking Peltola's character because he cannot defend the economic instability of his own state. Justice requires a representative who views energy as a human right, not a corporate windfall. On November 3, Alaskans must reject the distraction and vote for the person who sees the ledger.