The federal judge handling the Justice Department's bid to block certification of Alaska's Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan narrowly loses signaled considerable skepticism of DOJ's legal strategy on Monday.

In her first order acknowledging the case, District Judge Sharon Gleason highlighted the last-minute nature of the government's actions, especially as Alaskans have already begun casting their ballots.

"After Alaskans had already begun casting their ballots for the November 2026 election -- and nearly four months after the Alaska Supreme Court directed the Division of Elections to include Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot for the upcoming United States Senate election -- the United States initiated this action on October 22, 2026," Gleason said.

"The United States seeks a court order to prevent Defendants from certifying the result of the November 2026 United States Senate election if '(1) [Dan S.] Sullivan does not win the election; and (2) had all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast instead for [Dan S.] Sullivan and Alaska's rank-choice process played out accordingly, [Dan S.] Sullivan would have won the election.'" On Friday, President Donald Trump said that he had directed the Justice Department to preemptively file a lawsuit to try to block the certification of the crucial Alaska Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, citing name confusion among the candidates.

Republicans have alleged that candidate Dan J. Sullivan is running a sham campaign to purposefully confuse voters and draw votes away from incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan based on their names being similar.

The district judge's order came in response to a rapid series of briefings from parties seeking to join the case and dismiss the lawsuit.

Gleason said in her order on Monday that she intends to issue a ruling on a request for outside parties to join by Wednesday at 5 p.m. local time. She has yet to indicate whether she will hold a hearing.