Alaska GOP Snubs Lisa Murkowski & Endorses Trump-Backed Senate Candidate

The Alaska Republican Party State Central Committee on Saturday endorsed former Alaska Department of Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka for the United States Senate, setting up a potential showdown between Tshibaka and incumbent GOP moderate Lisa Murkowski in next year’s general election.

“I am honored to be Endorsed by the Alaska Republican Party! In the Senate, I will always fight for our Conservative values,” Tshibaka tweeted shortly after her victory.

I am honored to be Endorsed by the Alaska Republican Party! In the Senate, I will always fight for our Conservative values. pic.twitter.com/MbXxhMymfq

— Kelly Tshibaka (@KellyForAlaska) July 10, 2021

“I am grateful and thrilled to have the strong support of the Alaska Republican Party, which voted overwhelmingly to endorse my candidacy for the U.S. Senate. We all share a unified goal: to promote the principles upon which our country and state were founded. 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,” Tshibaka said in a statement as reported by Must Read Alaska.

“We now move forward with a united front, determined to defend Alaska from the continued onslaught of the radical Biden administration,” she said. “We need a Senator who will stand with Alaskans and not cozy up to the Washington, D.C. insiders, a Senator who has earned the trust of the people and strives to keep it every day. It is time for conservative leaders, with courage and common sense, to rise together across the nation. I am honored to be endorsed as that candidate for Alaska.”

Tshibaka announced her candidacy in late March just two weeks after the Alaska GOP voted to censure Murkowski for voting to convict former President Donald Trump at the conclusion of his second impeachment trial in January.

Trump offered his own endorsement of Tshibaka last month.

“Kelly Tshibaka is the candidate who can beat Murkowski — and she will. Kelly is a fighter who stands for Alaska values and America First,” Trump said in June. “I look forward to campaigning in Alaska for Kelly Tshibaka. She has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

Murkowski has not yet publicly declared whether she intends to seek a fourth Senate term.