Inside the Times's Decisions on the Alaska Senate Race Story

How did a potential Republican spoiler end up on the Alaska ballot for one of the most important Senate races in the country?

The New York Times reporter Kellen Browning nailed down the facts to answer that question this week. Through interviews, documents and text messages, Kellen confirmed that political operatives aligned with the Democratic Senate campaign of Mary Peltola recruited another candidate, Dan J. Sullivan, to run as a Republican in the Senate race and try to pull votes away from the incumbent Republican, Dan S. Sullivan.