Alaska’s midterm election results marked the latest rebuke to former President Donald Trump, with Senator Lisa Murkowski fending off a challenge from a Trump-backed candidate and former Governor Sarah Palin losing her bid for a seat. in the room.
Alaska’s ranked ballot results, released Wednesday by the the state election agency, pointed to the eligibility issues that have obsessed pro-Trump Republicans across the country during this year’s midterms.
They may also have reflected the influence of Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has a strained relationship with the former president. McConnell supported the centrist Murkowski in his race against Kelly Tshibaka, whom Trump and the Alaska GOP have backed.
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Murkowski was the only Senate Republican to vote to convict Trump during his impeachment trial last year and then face voters in this year’s midterm elections.
Trump, reportedly not on good terms with McConnell, launched his final bid for the White House last week but came out of midterm visibly hurt. His favorite candidates struggled and GOP strategists said he overthrew his party.
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Freethinking Alaska, known for its large proportion of independent voters, was hardly the most pro-Trump state in previous elections. But the former president consistently carried The Last Frontier to double-digit margins in 2016 and 2020 – before inspiring the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol with its election lies.
In the midterm elections, Murkwoski beat Tshibaka by about 7 percentage points, while Rep. Democrat Mary Peltola passed Palin by about 10 points, according to unofficial results reported by the Alaska Division of Elections.
“Thank you, Alaska,” Murkowski, 65, tweeted Wednesday evening. “I am honored that Alaskans — of all regions, backgrounds, and political affiliations — have once again placed their trust in me to continue to work with them and on their behalf in the U.S. Senate.”
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Peltola, the first Alaskan native to sit in Congress, posted a series of hard-hitting lines about kitchen table issues.
“Pro-fish policies win”, Peltola, 49, wrote. “Pro-family policies win. Pro-worker policies win. Pro-choice politicians win.
It’s unclear what Palin — who rose to national prominence when the late Sen. John McCain made her his White House running mate in 2008 — might do next.
She had resigned as governor of Alaska in 2009, a move that may have left voters with a bitter taste this time around.
For this year’s election, Trump campaigned with Palin and Tshibaka.
In June 2020, ahead of the impeachment vote and well ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Trump said he would support any conservative challenger to Murkowski.
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“Not many people know where they will be in two years, but I, in the great state of Alaska (which I love), am campaigning against Senator Lisa Murkowski,” he said. tweeted in June 2020. “Prepare any candidate, good or bad, I don’t care, I approve. If you have a pulse, I’m with you!
He followed. But Trump couldn’t see Tshibaka winning.
With dispatch services