Alaska GOP Senate primary sends Murkowski, Tshibaka to general election

The Alaskan Republican Senate primary race results this week showed residents of “The Last Frontier” are divided when it comes to the direction in which they wish to see the GOP head.

Incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski advanced to the general election, garnering 44.18 percent of the vote. Murkowski has been under water with Trump supporters since she voted to impeach him in the second impeachment trial against him, accusing him of inciting the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Murkowski has held her Senate seat since 2002, and will be one of four candidates to advance to the general election in November in a ranked-choice vote.

Another GOP candidate to advance to the general election is Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, who the former president said he believed could beat Murkowski. Trump has publicly lashed out at Murkowski since her impeachment vote in early 2021. Tshibaka ran on a platform of ousting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell if she is elected to the Senate. 

The third GOP candidate on the ballot is Democrat Patricia Chesbro, who was one of only three Democrats vying for Murkowski’s seat in the primary. Chesbro announced her candidacy in May after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and expressed her desire to fight the decision.

“I am very much in favor of women making their own choices for their own bodies,” Chesbro said. “I think that’s a really important issue and I would say if I have a platform, that’s, that’s one of the first pieces of the platform.” The fourth candidate was undecided at the time of this article.