Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has made headlines again with comments on her unwillingness to vote for former president Donald Trump, which puts her in an ever-shrinking group of GOP members opposing the party’s presumptive nominee for president.
“I wish that as Republicans, we had a nominee that I could get behind,” Murkowski told a CNN journalist in a brief hallway interview posted online on March 24.
“I certainly can’t get behind Trump,” Murkowski added. Her comments triggered stories on a number of national news sites.
On March 25, Murkowski said in a statement to the Anchorage Daily News that she remains a member of the GOP, after her comments to CNN prompted speculation that she had not ruled out leaving the party.
“I have been a Republican my entire life and continue to be despite our party’s nominee. My statements last week echoed what I believe is on many Americans’ minds — we are navigating uncertain and challenging political times. I’m very discouraged to see a rerun of the 2020 campaign between these two deeply flawed candidates,” Murkowski said in a written statement.
Murkowski is one of a small group of Senate Republicans who have been open about their opposition to Trump’s 2024 presidential run. The group also includes Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Todd Young of Indiana, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
Her comments in the CNN interview were in line with Murkowski’s long-standing position on Trump. Murkowski was quick after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to call on Trump to step down, and was one of only seven Republicans to vote for his impeachment at the time.
Even before then, Murkowski has distanced herself from the far-right wing of the GOP. In 2010, she won her seat in a write-in campaign after a tea party Republican beat her in the GOP primary. In 2022, she beat a Trump-backed Republican opponent in a ranked-choice election.
Ahead of the 2022 election, Trump campaigned against Murkowski, speaking in support of Republican opponent Kelly Tshibaka at an Anchorage rally.
In 2016, both Murkowski and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan called on Trump to drop out of the presidential race after the GOP nominee boasted in vulgar language about forcing himself sexually on women.
“I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump,” Murkowski answered when asked by the CNN reporter if she was considering leaving the Republican Party to become an independent.
“I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that,” Murkowski said when she was asked again about becoming an independent.
Murkowski for months has bemoaned the prospect of a rematch between President Joe Biden and Trump. Shortly before Super Tuesday, Murkowski announced she was endorsing Nikki Haley’s run for the Republican nominee for president. Haley dropped out of the race soon after the Super Tuesday elections, in which she failed to gain traction as a candidate.
Among Alaska’s statewide elected Republicans, Murkowski’s position is an outlier.
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy was one of the first Republican governors to endorse Trump’s 2024 run last year. Sullivan has also endorsed Trump. In addition, the two Republicans running for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat — Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and businessman Nick Begich — have also endorsed Trump.
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat running to keep her seat, has endorsed Biden.
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