Sound like a dirty trick by republicans. Good! Payback is warranted!
There was some utterly unqualified guy that ran for a judgeship in western washington around 25 years ago (when I lived there) that had the same name as some famous person. He didn’t campaign, but just registered as a candidate.
Typically, I don’t vote for judgeships unless I’ve studied up on the candidates. If I haven’t, I’m not going to check any of them. But apparently a lot of people do anyway.
He won.
It’s slightly underhanded. But I wouldn’t call it dirty, dirty would be if he changed his full name to be the same as the other person running.
And even that would not rise to the level of fraud. There is no law that says people who happen to have the same name as a major Rep or Dem candidate are prohibited from running.