Murkowski censured by Alaska Republicans

After breaking from the majority of her Republican colleagues who voted to acquit former president Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is facing repercussions in Alaska for her vote to convict. Several Alaska House districts approved resolutions censuring Murkowski for both her vote and for a broader pattern of straying from the Republican Party.

The Alaska Republican party opposed the Senate trial but has not formally censured Murkowski for her vote. As of last Thursday, at least five district Republican parties have censured the senator. A censure, as defined by the Alaska GOP, is an “official rebuke and disapproval of actions and/or words, written or spoken with a pointed expression of blame to a particular individual named.”

The districts are District 3 (North Pole); District 8 (Big Lake); District 9 (Valdez, Delta Junction and eastern Mat-Su); 12D (Wasilla, Eagle River, Butte) and District 31 (Kenai Peninsula).

The resolution from District 3 protests Murkowski’s “pattern of disregard for core conservative principles.” The senator, according to the resolution, has “repeatedly and openly undermined the values and core principles for which the Republican Party stands,” reads the resolution. The resolution was passed on February 2, before Murkowski cast her vote to convict. Her actions, according to the District 3 party, “taint the integrity of Alaska’s Republican Party.” They ask that Murkowski either change her party affiliation or reaffirm her Republican principles.

The resolution from District 12 Republicans references a remark Murkowski made in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News shortly after the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. Murkowski told a reporter that she questioned her future as a Republican if the Party becomes “nothing other than the party of Trump.” She has since repeatedly clarified that she will not become a Democrat and will continue to be a Republican, but not a “Trump Republican.”

For her part, Murkowski said that she cannot fear the consequences of her conviction vote and, if given the choice, would make the same decision. Her vote was “consequential on many levels, but I cannot allow the significance of my vote, to be devalued by whether or not I feel this is helpful for my political ambitions,” according to an interview she gave to Politico.

If the Republican Party censures her, she told the Associated Press, “they can make that statement. But I will make the statement, again, that my obligation is to support the Constitution that I have pledged to uphold, and I will do that, even if it means that I have to oppose the direction of my state party,” said Murkowski. In fact, Murkowski said, her willingness to speak (and vote) her conscience is a reason that Alaskans should support her. It is by failing to do so that she is letting Alaskans down, she said. “If I can’t say what I believe that our president should stand for, then why should I ask Alaskans to stand with me?”

Murkowski is not the only Republican facing implications for voting to convict Trump; several senators who broke from the party have already been censured by their state parties.

Of the seven senators who voted to convict Trump, Murkowski is the only one up for reelection next year. While she has already said that she will not let the fear of losing an election deter her, a recent change to Alaska’s election system will likely work to Murkowski’s benefit.

Last year, Alaskans approved Ballot Measure 2, which implements ranked-choice voting. Importantly, this does away with the party primary system, meaning that candidates will no longer need to worry about being “primaried out.” Instead, Alaskans will vote in “top four” primaries, in which all candidates will appear on one ballot, and the four that receive the most votes move on to the general election ballot. The lack of a primary means that the backing of the Alaska GOP is not as vitally important for Republican hopefuls.

Moreover, one of the central arguments in support of ranked choice voting is that it discourages extreme partisanism and instead benefits centrist candidates who can appeal to the largest number of voters. Although this may have changed in the last 11 years, Murkowski’s popularity with Alaskans was evident in her successful 2010 write-in campaign. Then, too, the Republican Party was shifting further to the right, and Murkowski lost her primary to Tea Party candidate Joe Miller. However, Murkowski was able to get reelected through a nearly unprecedented write-in campaign.