Alaska GOP Makes Big Move Against Murkowski

The Alaska Republican Party previously censured Sen. Lisa Murkowski for voting to convict former President Trump after his impeachment trial and now doesn’t want her to identify as a GOP candidate in next year’s election, a member of the party’s State Central Committee said Tuesday. “The party does not want Lisa Murkowski to be a Republican candidate,” said Tuckerman Babcock, immediate past chairman of the state party.

The vote to censure Murkowski was 53-17 at a Saturday meeting in Anchorage, he said. “It went further than censure, which was strong,” Babcock said. “But it also directed the party officials to recruit an opponent in the election and to the extent legally permissible, prevent Lisa Murkowski from running as a Republican in any election.”

The censure resolution also faulted Murkowski for supporting Rep. Deb Haaland as Interior secretary and for demanding Trump’s resignation after the riot at the Capitol. It’s a watershed moment for GOP politics in Alaska, the AP reports.

Murkowski has been in the Senate since 2002, when her father, former Sen. Frank Murkowski, selected her to finish his unexpired term after he was elected governor. A Murkowski has represented Alaska in the US Senate since 1981.

Babcock said he couldn’t speak about how the party will recruit a candidate, but said he would wait to see who Trump might endorse in the race and see if that person is a viable candidate. Murkowski hasn’t said whether she will seek another term in 2022. In 2010, she won as a write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary.

Edited via Newser.