Veteran GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski is expected to lose her seat, after two decades, to a Trump-backed candidate in next month’s midterm elections.
Since Alaska is a red state, almost all Republican candidates are expected to put on an impressive show in midterm elections in the state. Murkowski is unable to gain much support from voters, due to her anti-Trump policies.
Anti-Trump Senator to Bite the Dust
Election forecasting website, FiveThirtyEight, established that Trump-backed candidate Kelly Tshibaka has a 53% probability of winning the Senate race against Murkowski.
Lisa Murkowski was one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Donald Trump in the aftermath of his impeachment over the January 6 riots. However, she is the only anti-Trump senator who is up for reelection in this year’s midterm elections.
Lisa Murkowski is in trouble. I can’t wait to see her go down!
— RTatS (@RonTS777) October 11, 2022
Unlike other states, Alaska has a ranked-choice voting system, which means both Murkowski and Tshibaka will be on the ballot in November, despite belonging to the same party.
In this election system, the top four candidates of the state’s nonpartisan primaries advance to the actual elections irrespective of their partisan affiliations.
Both Murkowski and Tshibaka emerged as the top two Republican candidates in the primary election of the state in August this year. Pat Chesbro of the Democrat Party is also running for the Senate seat, but he is unlikely to make any significant impact in the elections.
Many conservatives have slammed Murkowski for going against Trump, as well as her lack of efforts to denounce Biden’s agenda.
Since her first election to the Senate in 2002, Murkowski remained a swing vote on most legislation, which killed many potential bills of Republican lawmakers.
In 2017, an independent government watchdog, GovTrack, labeled Murkowski as the second most liberal Republican in the Senate.
Republican senators censured Murkowski after her vote to convict Trump. However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is still supporting Murkowski’s reelection even though she went against Trump.
President Trump is absolutely on point here.
It’s an absolute disgrace that Mitch McConnell is spending $9M on trying to save the America Last RINO Lisa Murkowski & spending $0 on Blake Masters.
McConnell is a POS. pic.twitter.com/q78wBPp5km
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) October 10, 2022
This year, various GOP candidates who went against Trump after January 6 have already suffered miserable defeats in their primary elections.
Trump’s Endorsements Expected to Make Key Difference
For instance, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump, faced a humiliating defeat from a Trump-backed candidate in Wyoming primaries.
Trump celebrated Cheney’s defeat, claiming this was a lesson for all thugs going against American interests.
Furthermore, GOP House speaker of Arizona, Rusty Bowers, who wanted to run for Arizona state Senate also lost his primary election against Trump-backed candidate David Farnsworth.
Bowers declined Trump’s request to investigate Arizona election fraud, not to mention he also testified against the former president in front of the congressional committee to investigate the January 6 riots.
After his testimony, Bowers received backlash from Arizona state Republicans, who not only censured him, but also declared him unfit to serve in the Republican Party.
Likewise, Trump-endorsed candidate Tudor Nixon won the Republicans’ gubernatorial nomination in Michigan and is now up for election against a Democratic contender.
This article appeared in Right Wing Insider and has been published here with permission.
