Local media concluded he had at least three arrests:[6][7] for assault and battery of an off-duty police officer in 1982, when he was 17 years old,[8] and for public intoxication and disturbing the peace in 1985, while still under-age.

On October 3, 2008, Sullivan was one of two Oklahoma Republican congressmen to vote for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which created the Troubled Assets Relief Program.

[11] On December 9, 2008, Sullivan voted against a bailout of the automobile industry saying "taxpayers should not be asked to reward failure by subsidizing the very business practices that got them into this situation in the first place".

[14] In December 2011, Sullivan was named a co-chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee's most significant fundraising effort of the 2012 election cycle, the annual March dinner.

NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas praised Sullivan and the other co-chairman saying they did "a phenomenal job in their efforts to make this years event a huge success".

[18] He introduced legislation to study the cumulative economic impact of twelve significant EPA regulations which was passed by the House Energy and Power Subcommittee on May 24, 2011.

[19] In February 2011, Sullivan offered an amendment to block the EPA's decision to sell a higher blend, E15, ethanol gasoline for late model cars which passed by a vote of 285–136.

[21] On February 22, 2012, at a town hall meeting in Bixby, Sullivan said shooting senators would be the only way to pass the Ryan Budget: "You know but other than me going over there with a gun and holding it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them."

[26][27] He supported a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning[28] and wishes to strip the independent judiciary of the ability to decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of the Pledge of Allegiance.