The Alaska Republican Party endorsed Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s Trump-backed primary challenger on Saturday, The Hill reports.
The state party voted 58-17 to endorse Kelly Tshibaka over the weekend after previously censuring Murkowski, who has served for 20 years in the Senate, over her vote to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial.
“We all share a unified goal: to promote the principles upon which our country and state were founded,” said Tshibaka, a former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner.
“I have pledged that I will be true to our shared, conservative Alaska ideals and be a senator upon whom they can depend to make every decision based on what is best for our great state,” she added.
Will Murkowski run?
Murkowski has not formally announced whether she will run but is widely expected to seek re-election.
It wouldn’t be the first time Murkowski has had to overcome opposition from her own party. In 2010, Murkowski became the first sitting senator in roughly 50 years to win a write-in campaign after losing her primary to a Tea Party-backed Republican.
But this time she will have to face the ire of Trump, who has made it his mission to defeat her and other Republicans who backed his impeachment.
“Lisa Murkowski is bad for Alaska,” Trump complained last month. “Murkowski has got to go!”
Tshibaka pushes conspiracy theories:
Tshibaka has promoted false voter fraud conspiracy theories and backed discredited conversion therapy for gay people, who she previously wrote needed to “overcome their sexual tendencies and move towards a healthy lifestyle.”
She has also hired former Trump advisers Bill Stepien, Justin Clark, and Tim Murtaugh for her campaign.
She met with Trump personally at Trump Tower in June.
