Dan Sullivan will face Dan Sullivan in Alaska. Here’s how much that could hurt the GOP | CNN Politics

The situation that Republicans strove to avoid in Alaska has come to pass: Two Dan Sullivans will appear on the general election ballot for US Senate. One is an incumbent GOP senator, and the other is a political unknown that the party fears will siphon votes from the senator in a key race for the Senate majority. In short, history suggests this could hurt the party at least somewhat — but likely only in a very close race. And Alaska’s unusual ranked-choice system should mitigate some of the potential impact. Newly reported results in last week’s all-party primary show Dan J. Sullivan, a former school teacher, taking 2.5% of the vote and resting firmly inside the top four alongside GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan (42.6%) and Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola (48.2%). The last spot is to be determined, with two other candidates at 1.1%. Republicans would have plenty to fear if this were a normal general election and the other Dan Sullivan appeared on the ballot as an independent or third-party candidate. In that case, it’s easy to see a fair number of voters inadvertently voting for the wrong Dan Sullivan. But Alaska’s ranked-choice system allows voters to rank multiple candidates