Daniel Scott Sullivan (born November 13, 1964) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator for Alaska since 2015. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Sullivan was in active duty for the United States Marine Corps from 1993 to 1997, 2004 to 2006, and in 2009 and 2013. Between 1997 and 1999, he clerked for judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Alaska Supreme Court. After working as an attorney in private practice in Anchorage, Alaska from 2000 to 2002, Sullivan moved to Maryland to work for the Bush administration; he worked with the National Economic Council and the National Security Council and later served as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. He was Alaska Attorney General from 2009 to 2010 and commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources from 2010 to 2013.
Sullivan ran in the 2014 election for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic incumbent Mark Begich. In August 2014, he won the Republican primary, defeating Alaska Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell and 2010 Senate nominee Joe Miller. Sullivan defeated Begich in the general election, 47.96% to 45.83%, a margin of 6,014 votes out of 282,400 cast. He was reelected in 2020, defeating independent challenger Al Gross by about 13 percentage points.


== Early life and education ==
Sullivan was born and raised in Fairview Park, Ohio, the son of Sandra (née Simmons) and Thomas C. Sullivan, now the president and CEO of RPM International, a holding company founded by his father, Frank C. Sullivan. He graduated from Culver Military Academy in Indiana in 1983. 
Sullivan studied economics at Harvard University, graduating in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude. In 1993, he earned joint J.D. and M.S.F.S. degrees cum laude from Georgetown University. He was a member of the Georgetown Law Journal and interned for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.


== Early career ==


=== Military service ===
Sullivan has served in the United States Marine Corps since 1993, both on active duty and in the reserves. Sullivan, who has spent several years with a reconnaissance battalion based in Anchorage, initially left active duty in 1997 when he first moved to Alaska, but has since been recalled to active duty three times: from 2004 to 2006, again in early 2009, and for a six-week tour in Afghanistan in July 2013. In 2011 he was recommended for promotion to lieutenant colonel by then-retired General John Abizaid, a board member of the Sullivan family-based RPM International corporation since 2008. Sullivan is now a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He is a recipient of the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.


=== Early legal career ===
Sullivan served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Andrew Kleinfeld of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Fairbanks from 1997 to 1998. He then clerked for Chief Justice Warren Matthews of the Alaska Supreme Court in Anchorage in 1998–99. In 2000, Sullivan joined the Anchorage office of the Perkins Coie law firm, focusing on commercial law and corporate law. He joined the Alaska bar that same year.


=== White House and State Department ===
In 2002, Sullivan headed the International Economics Directorate of the National Economic Council and National Security Council staffs at the White House. He advised President George W. Bush and the National Security Advisor and NEC chairman. He left the White House in 2004.In 2006, Bush appointed Sullivan United States Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Sullivan in May of that year. He served in this capacity until January 2009. While serving as Assistant Secretary of State he owned a house in Anchorage and continued to vote in Alaska elections by absentee ballot, while claiming Bethesda, Maryland, as his primary residence for tax purposes.


=== Alaska Attorney General ===
Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg resigned in February 2009 over the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner dismissal scandal. Governor Sarah Palin nominated Wayne Anthony Ross for attorney general, but the Alaska Legislature rejected Ross. Palin then nominated Sullivan. He was sworn into office in June 2009, while the Alaska Legislature was out of session. The Alaska Legislature unanimously confirmed Sullivan's appointment on April 9, 2010. Sullivan, who had been retained by Governor Sean Parnell, stepped down as attorney general on December 5, 2010, to be replaced by John J. Burns.


=== Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources ===
On November 18, 2010, shortly after being elected, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell appointed Sullivan Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, replacing former Commissioner Thomas E. Irwin. In 2013, during his term in office, Sullivan was deployed to Afghanistan for six weeks, in his role as the