Trump says he will fight Murkowski in Alaska next year

Trump says he will fight Murkowski in Alaska next year

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“I will under no circumstances endorse the failed candidate from the great state of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski,” Trump said in a statement first reported by Politico. “She represents her state badly and her country even worse. I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be – in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad senator.”
Saturday was not the first time Trump has threatened to fight Murkowski, promising to do so in a series of critical tweets in June. But his attacks on Republican incumbents are another example of the sharp gap between the party’s wing wing, represented by the likes of Murkowski and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Trump wing in the wake of his presidency.
Murkowski was one of seven Republican senators who voted in his second indictment last month to convict Trump and is the only one facing voters next year.

During Trump’s first public speech since leaving office, at the Conservative Political Action Conference late last month, he called Murkowski and other Republicans who supported the accusation “grandstanders” and “only Republicans by name” or “RINOs.” named.

But earlier this week, McConnell pledged that Senate Republicans would support Murkowski regardless of Trump’s actions.

“Absolutely,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, replied when asked by CNN if the National Republican Senate Committee would support Murkowski.

In his statement on Saturday, Trump referred to Murkowski’s vote to confirm Deb Haaland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for home affairs.

“(Murkowski)’s vote to promote radical left-wing Democrat (sic) Deb Haaland as Home Secretary is another example of Murkowski not standing up for Alaska,” Trump said.

CNN reached out to Murkowski’s office for comment.

The moderate Republican has experience surviving challenges from the right. In 2010, for example, after losing the Republican nomination (and the support of the IDP leadership), she won the general election as an enrollment candidate. This cycle could also work in the senator’s favor, a new ‘top four’ system in the state, where all candidates rally in a non-party election and the four top finalists advance to the general election, where voters arrange their preferences.

CNN’s Manu Raju and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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