Lisa Murkowski Defeats The Noise!

The beauty of independence. We could have three independent senators. Murkowski defeats her Republican challenger.

President Joe Biden, please talk to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Make her become an independent and caucus with the Democrats. 

She is moderate and not a noise maker like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) or Sen-Elect J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Sen-Elect John Fetterman (D-PA). 

She is not stubborn like most of the Republican conference or Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). 

She runs like Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Angus King (I-ME) and Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO). Keep it simple and not be noise is why Murkowski won her election.

She along with Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) and Gov. Mike Dunleavy easily won their elections.

The Republican senator defeated a Washed Up 45-backed challenger. She will serve another six years as Alaska's senator.

Her and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) are considered moderate at best. Sullivan is more conservative than Murkowski. Lisa is more supportive of women's rights and supports the right to choice.

Murkowski, who will now enter her fourth term in the Senate, defeated Kelly Tshibaka in the third round of her state’s new system of ranked-choice voting. She also defeated Democrat Patricia Chesbro. Murkowski won with nearly 54%.

Biden signs a bill with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and the late Don Young.

“Thank you, Alaska,” Murkowski said in a statement Wednesday night. “I am honored that Alaskans ― of all regions, backgrounds and party affiliations ― have once again granted me their confidence to continue working with them and on their behalf in the U.S. Senate. I look forward to continuing the important work ahead of us.”

It took more than two weeks for Alaska election officials to tally the final results of the race. That was expected.

Under the state’s new system of elections, voters ranked their top four candidates — regardless of party affiliation — in the order of whom they wanted to win. Their second, third and fourth choices were only factored in if their first and later choices finished last and didn’t make it to the next round. The election ended as soon as one candidate got more than 50% of the vote.

Since neither Murkowski nor Tshibaka got 50% after the first-choice vote counts, election officials moved on to factor in second choice picks. In the end, Murkowski was the first to get a majority vote.

The Alaska senator, who regularly wins elections by catering to a broad base of moderate Republicans, independents and Democrats, certainly benefited from the state’s new election system, which voters approved in 2020. In the primary, all she had to do to advance was be one of the four top vote-getters. In the general election, Murkowski, who is easily the most moderate Republican in today’s Senate, was well positioned to pick up more votes across party lines as voters’ second- and third-ranked choices were factored in.

Murkowski endorsed Mary Peltola.

Murkowski had been a prime target for defeat by Washed Up 45, who has been vowing to unseat her ever since she was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict him for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. The former president regularly attacks her and went to Alaska in July to stump for Tshibaka, a far-right social conservative who once wrote in support of an “ex-gay” organization and warned of the evils of “addictive” witchcraft.

The leaders of Alaska’s Republican Party also endorsed Tshibaka, who previously ran the state’s Department of Administration. Their endorsement came a few months after they voted 53-17 to censure Murkowski for voting to impeach Washed Up 45. Buzz Kelley, a Republican who finished fourth in the Senate primary, stopped his campaign earlier this fall and threw his support behind Tshibaka as well.

The Murkowski-Tshibaka race evolved into a proxy fight between Washed Up 45 and another one of his critics: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who directed millions of dollars into the state to support Murkowski. One GOP senator anonymously told NBC News last week, “Mitch has really taken some actions to poke at Trump.”