A damning new report exposes Senator Dan Sullivan’s nearly two-decade history of misleading Alaskans about his insidious ties to the Pebble Mine project, showing that he broke his promise to donate Pebble Mine-tied campaign contributions to charity after the “explosive” 2020 scandal, and, even worse, he is still raking in cash from Pebble executives.
This news comes as executives quietly push to resurrect the disastrous copper mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay — threatening the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and its more than $2 billion annual economic engine supporting Alaskan fishermen and families.
Alaska Fish News: A decision on Pebble Mine is due on April 15; AK Senator Dan Sullivan is still pocketing Pebble donations
April 13, 2026
The Pebble Mine is headed back to court as Canadian-based Northern Dynasty Minerals continues its decades-long attempt to overturn a federal block of the massive open pit gold and copper mine at the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery near Bristol Bay.
Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, who has held office since 2015, has remained silent on the lawsuit as he seeks re-election this year. Meanwhile, he continues to accept campaign donations from Pebble backers as recently as December 2025.
Sullivan only came out against the mine in September 2020 after a series of explosive video tapes were revealed in which Pebble’ CEO Tom Collier and Northern Dynasty President/CEO Ronald Thiessen detailed their access to Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and other Alaska power brokers, including Sullivan.
On the tapes, Collier bragged that Sullivan had been “sitting over in a corner and being quiet.” That silence was strategic, Collier said, and would allow the permit to be approved without Sullivan “making bad news stories.”
It was only three days after the tapes were released that Dan Sullivan abruptly changed his position and said that he opposed the Pebble Mine project. The next month, he also promised to donate campaign contributions from mine advocates to charity. According to Federal Election disbursement reports, that never happened.
A Popular Information’s investigation revealed that Sullivan had received a total of $34,150 donations connected to the Pebble project since 2017.
Sullivan has a long relationship of advocacy for the Pebble project since he was selected in 2009 as Attorney General by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
As Attorney General, Sullivan defended Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources and the Pebble Partnership in a lawsuit challenging the state’s process for issuing permits to the Pebble Limited Partnership.
And between 2017 and 2020, Sullivan received $6,400 in contributions from the disgraced former Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier.
The December 2025 donation from John Shively, the current CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, indicates a resumption of financial support from high-level Pebble leadership during the current 2026 election cycle.