Days after Chuck Schumer denied any involvement in the campaign of Dan J. Sullivan—the newly declared Republican known as “Decoy Dan” who is running for Senate in Alaska in an apparent bid to siphon votes from GOP incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan—the Senate minority leader’s nonprofit group began running an ad starring a Dan J. Sullivan campaign representative, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
The spot from Majority Forward, the nonprofit affiliate of Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC, features a man identified as “Alan” from “Anchorage” who owns a moving company and accuses Sen. Sullivan of “voting to raise our costs.” His full name is Alan Harris, and his moving company, Allstar Moving, is registered to a residential address in Anchorage, Alaska, records show. So is a second business, Amber Lee Strategies, a political consulting firm owned by Harris’s romantic partner, Democratic strategist Amber Lee, who owns the property, according to local records.
Dan J. Sullivan confirmed in June that he hired Lee as a campaign adviser after the metadata from his campaign launch press release listed “Amber Lee” as its author. But Lee is not supporting the lesser-known Sullivan alone: Dan J. Sullivan’s declaration of candidacy states that a “rep” for the campaign, “Alan Harris,” delivered the declaration form to the Alaska Division of Elections in Anchorage “on behalf of Daniel J. Sullivan” on June 1.
Two weeks later, on June 16, Majority Forward began running the ad featuring Harris, according to TV spending data reviewed by the Free Beacon. Representatives for both Schumer and Senate Majority PAC denied being involved in Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign nine days prior, on June 7.
The revelation undercuts Schumer’s attempts to distance himself and his political apparatus from Dan J. Sullivan, whom Republicans have accused of being a “sham candidate” running to deceive GOP voters in an attempt to siphon support from Sen. Sullivan.
In most states, Sen. Sullivan would square off against his lesser-known namesake in a winner-take-all primary election to determine the Republican nominee for the Senate seat. Alaska, however, uses a “top four” ranked-choice voting system, meaning all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, run in one primary, and the top four vote-getters advance to the general election. As a result, both Sullivans could appear on the ballot in November.
Though Dan J. Sullivan is running as a Republican, he was not associated with the party until two days before filing to run under the GOP banner. He also asked the state to be listed on the ballot as “Dan S. Sullivan,” though he does not share Sen. Sullivan’s middle initial. He has claimed that his “father and grandfather were both Republicans” and raised him “to believe in compassionate conservatism,” which led him “to choose to run as a Republican.” But his father pulled Democratic primary ballots in Illinois in 2024 and 2006, according to voting records obtained by The Alaska Story.
Schumer, Lee, and the Dan J. Sullivan campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
“This is much ado about nothing. Neither Senate Majority PAC nor Majority Forward has ever communicated with Dan J. Sullivan, directly or indirectly, nor did Senate Majority PAC encourage him to run or have any involvement in his campaign,” a spokesman for Senate Majority PAC told the Free Beacon. “Both entities were equally unaware that an individual featured in a Majority Forward ad was involved with the Dan J. Sullivan campaign. The video was filmed in early May, weeks before Dan J. Sullivan filed to run. The ads are no longer running and have not been for some time.”
Mainstream media outlets have referenced Lee, the Dan J. Sullivan strategist and romantic partner of Harris, as a Democratic strategist and supporter of Sen. Sullivan’s top Democratic opponent, former congresswoman Mary Peltola. The New York Times included a quote from Lee in a 2022 piece on Peltola, calling her “a Democratic strategist who is backing Ms. Peltola.” In a January piece, the Hill dubbed Lee “an Alaska Democratic consultant.”
“It’s the first time since Sullivan took office that he’s really facing a real challenger,” Lee told the outlet in reference to Peltola. “It’s going to be a hard race, but … I believe there’s a real chance for her to win this.”
Lee has done more than advocate for Peltola in the media. A super PAC that has supported Peltola’s congressional campaigns, Vote Alaska Before Party, paid Amber Lee Strategies more than $6,000 between November 2022 and October 2024, federal campaign finance disclosures show. Three months later, in January 2025, Lee and Harris celebrated their three-year anniversary, according to a social media post obtained by the Free Beacon.
Lee also referred to Harris as her “boyfriend” in a February 2025 Literary Traveler article detailing their trip to the Japanese island of Aoshima, “known to many as Cat Island,” as Lee noted.
“I saw it in a video once,” Lee wrote in the article. “It was the manifestation of a place I used to run away to in my mind when blood was drawn, shots were given, voices were raised, or hope was lost. A place where humans are scarce, but cats are abundant—soft, warm anchors that compel you to sit still and scratch under their chins even while the world around you burns. I longed to be swallowed up in a sea of padded paws and question-marked-shaped tails. To lie on the ground and be buried under their purrs so that one moment of my time on this earth could feel like an arrival instead of a stop along the way. All of that soft furry weight allowing me to be still and stop planning the next leg of the lifelong journey toward somewhere else.”
Republicans challenged Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy, arguing that he was running in “bad faith.” The Alaska Division of Elections disqualified him in June, determining that his campaign served “the purpose of confusing or misleading voters.” Dan J. Sullivan appealed the decision, which a lower court reversed. The Alaska supreme court upheld that reversal on June 29, meaning Dan J. Sullivan will appear on the Aug. 18 primary ballot alongside Sen. Sullivan.
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