Alaska Republican US Sen. Lisa Murkowski has won reelection, defeating Donald Trump-endorsed GOP rival Kelly Tshibaka. Murkowski beat Tshibaka in the Nov. 8 ranked choice election. The results were announced Wednesday, the AP reports, when elections officials tabulated the ranked choice results after neither candidate won more than 50% of first-choice votes. The race also included Democrat Pat Chesbro and Republican Buzz Kelley, who suspended his campaign after the August primary and endorsed Tshibaka. Murkowski was the only one of the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial last year who was on the ballot this year.
In 2020, before that year's election and far before Tshibaka jumped into the Senate race, Trump announced plans to campaign against Murkowski after she criticized him, "Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don't care, I'm endorsing. If you have a pulse, I'm with you!" he said. Trump appeared at a rally in Anchorage in July for Tshibaka and Sarah Palin, who lost her run for Alaska's lone US House seat. He more recently participated in a telerally for Tshibaka in late October. Tshibaka, who worked in federal inspectors general offices before leading the Alaska Department of Administration for two years, credited Trump with helping to raise her name recognition and give her candidacy a boost.
Murkowski, who was censured by state Republican Party leaders last year for offenses that included her impeachment vote, paid little attention to Trump during a campaign in which she emphasized a willingness to work across party lines and focused on her record and seniority. Murkowski, a moderate who has been in the Senate since 2002, is the most senior member of Alaska's congressional delegation following the death in March of Republican Rep. Don Young, who held Alaska's House seat for 49 years.
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