Votes are still being counted in Alaska's Senate race between incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola. CBS News' Taurean Small reports.
Page B52From§Eachthe evening edition — 5 November 2026
Justice Department's clause for a narrow Republican loss meets a narrow Republican loss, exactly as drafted.
As it ran on the front
The clause was built for a specific defeat, and on Wednesday the defeat it was built for stopped being hypothetical and started being math. The lawsuit filed to shadow those probes was written to block Alaska's certification under one condition only: Sen. Dan Sullivan, the Republican, losing by a narrow margin. On 27 October, before a single vote was counted, the Senate was already bracing for a floor fight over whether to seat Peltola if she won. The order to file the suit had come from the president four days earlier, on 23 October, for a margin the count had not yet produced; this week it did.
Then came the drawing. By 30 October the papers were treating the controversy and the Senate's majority as the same story, because by then they were. On 1 November Senator Tim Scott, asked point-blank whether he would accept the result if Peltola won, dodged the question entirely — not a denial, not a yes, just the empty space where an answer to a hypothetical should go until the hypothetical stops being one.…
…(cont) It stopped being one this week. CBS News reports the race is still undecided, Peltola and Sullivan separated by a slim margin, the count running into a second day with Peltola ahead by roughly 500 votes and the lead holding. The lawsuit drafted to apply only to that exact outcome has not been withdrawn. A lawsuit is not a prediction. It is a plan, and the plan is running — bunk with a filing date, same as it was in October.
What dies here is not a case — the case is very much alive — but the fiction that it was ever about a decoy candidate or a split vote or anything on a ballot at all. It was about a number. The number came in. In lieu of flowers, Alaska's division of elections should finish the count, certify the winner, and let the Justice Department explain in open court, under oath, what margin would have made the lawsuit go away.
“They write the lawsuit for the exact day they might lose, then file it and wait, which is not law, that's a loaded gun left on the table in case the vote goes the wrong way. Five hundred votes in and the thing they built for five hundred votes is still sitting right there on the docket, armed. Whoever that gavel finally comes down on, remember it wasn't written for the winner — it was written for this one outcome, and here we are.”
“This is just routine contingency drafting, counsel prepares for every outcome, that's good lawyering, nothing more — wait, every outcome? No, I mean, the suit stays on file until somebody moves to withdraw it, that's just how litigation works, it's not like it's aimed at one result specifically... did I say "aimed"? Strike that, I didn't mean aimed.”
Earlier in this story
- GOP's mid-decade maps backfire into a dummymander, leaving Democrats holding the pen. By Mort · the evening edition, 5 November 2026
- Texas and Missouri redraw maps to dodge voters, voters redraw them back; Georgia's governor takes the hint. By Mort · the morning edition, 4 November 2026
- The clause Justice drafted only for a Republican's narrow loss now describes Tuesday's results exactly. By Mort · the morning edition, 4 November 2026
- Republicans redraw Texas and Missouri maps to survive 2026, voters and districts vote no. By Mort · the morning edition, 4 November 2026
- Court rejects noncitizen-voter ballot purge four times, approves it on Election Day. By Mitch · the evening edition, 3 November 2026
- DOJ's four Alaska ballot probes yield zero charges, earn Marc Elias a target letter anyway. By Mort · the evening edition, 3 November 2026
The receipts
· Trump rages at Alaska Democrat who reportedly recruited man with similar name as Republican opponent – live from the morgue, 28 Oct 2026
· Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign reportedly recruited second Dan Sullivan in Alaska Senate race from the morgue, 28 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.