ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The namesake challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan isn't backing out of this year's race, but the Democratic fourth-place finisher in Alaska's primary has withdrawn, a move that will elevate a little-known Republican onto the ballot.

The shake-up came Monday, the deadline to withdraw from the general election, helping solidify the names that voters can expect to see on the general election ballot in November.

Under Alaska's ranked choice voting system, the four leading vote-getters in the Aug. 18 primary election who have not dropped out will face off in the general election.

With primary results certified Monday, Democratic challenger Mary Peltola led the Senate race with 49.5% of the vote, beating Republican incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, who has 41.4% of the vote.

Finishing third and staying in the race is Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg, who ran as a Republican and won 2.5% of the vote. He was listed on the primary ballot after the Alaska Supreme Court in June upheld a lower court judge's determination that the Petersburg Sullivan was eligible to run, following an effort by the Republican-led Alaska Division of Elections to keep him off the ballot.

The legal battle followed complaints by Republican groups that he was a Democratic plant trying to deceive voters to benefit Peltola, and the Division of Elections took unusual steps to differentiate between the challenger and the incumbent on the ballot.

The Petersburg Sullivan has denied those allegations and said in a statement Monday that he plans to "amplify" his message opposing the senator over the next two months.

"The politics of division as practiced by the Senator have not solved the problems we face today in Alaska and as a nation," he said in a prepared statement. "Are you better off now than you were 12 years ago when the Senator was first elected? This year, Alaska dropped to 47th in Children's Well-Being and 49th in Top States for Business 2026. Young people and the elderly are moving south for better opportunities and healthcare."

"We are involved in an ill-conceived war with Iran and a bewildering trade war with Canada. Gasoline, food, housing and medical costs seem to increase daily," he wrote. "No matter how many times Washington tells us all is well in America, most of us see that as an absurd fallacy."

Meanwhile, fourth-place finisher David Leslie, who aligns himself with the Democratic Socialist wing of the Democratic Party, departed from the U.S. Senate race after drawing 1.1% of the vote. That elevates Gerald Heikes, a Republican perennial candidate from Palmer who finished 109 votes behind Leslie, onto the ballot.

"We'll see what happens," Heikes said Monday night about his plans for the campaign. "I'll be doing interviews in a couple of weeks."

Right For Alaska, a super PAC that formed earlier this year, spent more than $400,000 promoting Heikes in an effort to weaken Sullivan. It was part of a strategy by political action committees to spend millions of dollars boosting fringe candidates in the Senate race.

When he also ran for U.S. House in 2024, Heikes was the target of heavy spending from a Democrat-backed group running ads leading up to the August primary emphasizing his stance calling for a nationwide abortion ban. At the time, he was not one of the top four vote-getters who advanced to the November general election.

Leslie said he'll be making a formal statement Tuesday about his decision to suspend his campaign.

"There was much pressure from not just the Alaska Democratic leadership, but many different institutions of power, and I will be explaining my decision more tomorrow," he said Monday.

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