[1] A trial attorney, Sullivan ran for President of the United States in the 1960 presidential election as the candidate of the Constitution Party.

As Governor Paul B. Johnson Jr., running for his old spot as Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, campaigned for law and order, Sullivan and eventual Governor-elect John Bell Williams emphasized their ability to roll back required federal changes to the state's segregation policy as outlined by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Despite thousands of blacks newly registered to vote in Mississippi, the two segregationist candidates for the executive office, Williams and Sullivan, claimed overwhelming victories.

Both Sullivan and Williams endorsed white flight from the state's public school system for hastily established private academies that then-U.S.

[5] Sullivan unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1978 in a race ultimately won by Republican Thad Cochran.