Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (R), who voted to impeach Trump, is projected to lose the seat she’s held for two decades to Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka in the 2022 elections. Incumbent Sen. Murkowski has held her seat since 2002 and is ranked as the second most liberal Republican senator.
According to the election forecaster FiveThirtyEight, there is a 99% chance of a Republican winning Alaska’s senate election and a 53% chance of Tshibaka taking Murkowski’s seat.
This will be the first year that Alaska will use a rank-choice voting system, which has allowed both Republican candidates to appear on the ballot in November’s election against Democratic candidate Patricia Chesbro.
Meanwhile, Murkowski’s supporters have spent millions on ads attacking Tshibaka. ‘Alaskans for L.I.S.A.’ (Leadership in a Strong Alaska) have created ads that focus on Tshibaka’s fishing law violations, as well as comments she previously made about birth control – comments that Tshibaka insists have been misconstrued.
Despite the massive amount of capital being put into these smear campaigns, support for Tshibaka doesn’t seem to be faltering within the GOP.
