Federal filings show Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan's campaign and allied PACs have poured tens of thousands of dollars into high-end restaurants and a luxury Arizona resort, even as his constituents face some of the steepest food and gas costs in the nation.
Since March 1, Sullivan's campaign spent nearly $35,000 on restaurants located outside Alaska, the Daily Mail reported, citing Federal Election Commission filings. The spending spree stretches across Washington, D.C., chophouses, a private club, French bistros, and a resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, more than 3,600 miles from Sullivan's home in Anchorage. It comes as the two-term senator heads into what looks like a tight general election on November 3 against Democrat Mary Peltola, who outpaced him in Alaska's open primary.
Sullivan, 61, has held his Senate seat since 2014. His estimated net worth sits at roughly $8.5 million, according to Quiver Quantitative, a firm that tracks politicians' finances. His 2025 Senate financial disclosure lists at least $4 million in publicly available assets and no earned income beyond his congressional salary of at least $174,000 a year. None of that is unusual for a sitting senator. What stands out is how freely the campaign cash has flowed at establishments far from the voters he needs in November.
The single largest restaurant tab belongs to Lucille's Modern Chophouse in Washington, D.C., helmed by critically acclaimed chef Matt Baker, who previously earned a Michelin star for his now-closed Gravitas restaurant. Sullivan's campaign has spent more than $7,000 at Lucille's since March and more than $13,000 since September 2025. The Daily Mail noted one wrinkle the filings do not explain: the restaurant announced its D.C. venture in October 2024 but, as of the article's publication, had not yet opened its doors. How the campaign ran up a five-figure tab at an unopened establishment is unclear.
Sullivan's Washington dining habits go well beyond one steakhouse. FEC records show he visited the 116 Club, a private establishment, ten times between January 2025 and March 2026, spending more than $12,000. Since March alone, three more visits added another $3,000. At Bistro Cacao, a French restaurant in the capital, the senator logged 21 visits over the same January 2025, March 2026 window, running up a $21,500 tab. Two additional visits since March cost roughly $6,500 more.
Even the lighter fare adds up. Sullivan frequented Jetties Sandwich Shop eight times since March. Subs there run between $13 and $17, modest by D.C. standards, but still a Washington lunch, not an Anchorage one.
Campaign records also show payments of about $3,700 to Beltway Catering and roughly $6,600 to Taste Gourmet for event catering. In the second fiscal quarter alone, April through July, Sullivan's campaign spent approximately $28,000 on food expenses, including events. During that same stretch, just under $7,000 went to food spending inside Alaska. The ratio speaks for itself: for every dollar the campaign spent feeding people in the state Sullivan represents, it spent four dollars feeding people somewhere else.
The restaurant bills are only part of the picture. Sullivan Victory, a political action committee aligned with the senator, spent nearly $27,500 on a single event at The Phoenician, a luxury resort at the base of the Camelback Mountains in Scottsdale, Arizona. The resort features a three-level pool with private cabanas, an 18-hole golf course, pickleball courts, an athletic club, an on-site steakhouse, and private villas. Its presidential suite runs close to $5,000 a night with fees; the cheapest room tops $1,000. The average home price in Scottsdale sits just under $1 million.
The nature of the Phoenician event, whether it was a fundraiser, a donor retreat, or something else, is not spelled out in the filings. What is clear is the price tag and the location: a desert resort roughly 3,600 miles from the Alaskan voters whose support Sullivan needs.
Sullivan Victory and True North, another Sullivan-affiliated PAC, each spent more than $10,000 on food-related expenses since March, the filings show. Combined with the campaign's own restaurant spending, the total footprint is substantial, and overwhelmingly out of state.
Campaign-finance questions are hardly unique to Sullivan. Rep. Ruben Gallego faced scrutiny after reports emerged that he billed campaign donors for family members' flights to Washington. The common thread is the same: donor money spent in ways that look more like personal comfort than voter outreach.
The spending lands at a moment when Alaska's cost of living is punishing ordinary families. AAA data put the average price of a gallon of gas in Alaska at $4.83, nearly a dollar above the national average of just over $4. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show national food-at-home prices rose 2.7 percent over the twelve months ending in July, with fruits and vegetables climbing 5.1 percent. Dining out nationally jumped 3.4 percent over the past year.
Alaska's numbers are worse. The Alaska Beacon reported in July that grocery prices in Juneau, the state capital, run 28.4 percent above the national average. Anchorage and Fairbanks hover around 23 percent above the national mark. For a family budgeting around those prices, a senator's $6,500 dinner tab at a single D.C. bistro is not a rounding error, it is several months of groceries.
Eric Croft, chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party, seized on the contrast. In a statement to the Daily Mail, Croft said:
"While Alaskans face record-high costs, Self-Serving Sullivan has been wining and dining at luxurious resorts and the ritziest DC steakhouses. Alaskans deserve better, and now that the truth is out, they'll vote Sullivan out this November."
Croft's framing is partisan, and the nickname is a campaign line. But the underlying numbers come from federal filings, not from the Democratic Party. Sullivan's campaign was contacted for comment. No response was quoted.
Sullivan enters the general election trailing. In Alaska's open primary, where the top four candidates regardless of party advance, Peltola finished first with roughly 64,000 votes. Sullivan followed with about 57,000. Peltola dominated in lower-population areas and in Juneau, where she captured more than half the vote. Sullivan pulled ahead in areas around Fairbanks, but the overall margin gave Democrats a clear enthusiasm edge heading into November.
Adding to Sullivan's headaches is a fellow Republican named Dan J Sullivan, no relation, who collected approximately 3,200 votes, or 2.4 percent. The senator has accused the other Sullivan of being a plant candidate designed to confuse voters. That accusation gained traction after reports uncovered a Democratic strategist's connection to the spoiler candidacy. An Alaska election official later disqualified the same-name candidate over a scheme to mislead voters, but the episode already cost the incumbent real votes in a race where every point matters.
The spending story first surfaced in June, when the Daily Mail reported on Sullivan's campaign expenditures at a luxury California resort. That earlier report did not slow the pattern. The latest filings show the out-of-state dining continued through the spring and summer, the very months a senator in a competitive race would normally be shaking hands at diners back home.
Accountability for how elected officials spend donor money is not a partisan principle. Sen. Chuck Grassley, for instance, pressed for answers on FBI travel spending long before the opposition party raised the issue publicly. Voters of both parties expect the people who ask for campaign contributions to spend them on campaigning.
Sullivan still has time to close the gap with Peltola before November 3. But FEC filings are public documents, and opponents will keep reading them. A senator whose campaign spends four dollars out of state for every one dollar it spends at home hands his challenger a ready-made argument, and in a year when Alaskans are paying $4.83 for a gallon of gas, that argument does not need much embellishment.
Voters tend to forgive a lot from their elected officials. Spending their donations at a Scottsdale resort while groceries in Juneau cost a third more than the rest of the country, that is a tougher sell.