Trump has officially endorsed a challenger to RINO Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, named Kelly Tshibaka, and said he looks forward to campaigning for her to get Murkowski out of the Senate. This from therightscoop.com.
POLITICO – Former President Donald Trump officially endorsed a Republican challenger to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Friday, escalating his campaign against the longtime GOP senator who voted to convict him following his impeachment trial earlier this year.
Trump backed Kelly Tshibaka, the former state commissioner of administration, in a statement in which he called Murkowski “bad for Alaska.”
“Murkowski has got to go!” Trump said in the statement.
“Kelly Tshibaka is the candidate who can beat Murkowski — and she will. Kelly is a fighter who stands for Alaska values and America First,” Trump added.
Trump also said that he looked forward to campaigning for Tshibaka in Alaska. Tshibaka launched her bid in March and hired several alums of Trump’s 2020 campaign in her effort to unseat the GOP senator.
Trump has already backed several Republicans in open races where GOP senators are retiring. But this marks his first endorsement of a candidate seeking to unseat a sitting Republican senator. It could cause a headache for Republicans seeking to win back the Senate majority.
Murkowski has been one of the most vocal Republican critics of Trump, and the former president vowed to oppose her reelection after she voted to convict him as part of his impeachment trial in February. She was the only Republican who is up for reelection next year who voted to convict Trump.
This was expected but it marks Trump’s official campaign to oust RINO Murkowski and replace her with a much more Republican, conservative candidate. Trump is dead set on spending money to do this so expect to see him in Alaska, campaigning for Tshibaka quite a number of times between now and the election next year. And it will be money well spent.
But even if Murkowski loses in the primary, don’t count her out. She lost in the primary years ago and then mounted a write-in campaign and ran as a third party candidate and won. She knows how to do it and this will undoubtedly be a fight to November.
What’s interesting is that this will be at odds with McConnell and the NRSC, who vows to support Murkowski because she’s an incumbent. That’s his rule and he’s not going to break it despite how horrible she is as a Senator. And McConnell fights dirty in Republican primaries, so expect this one to get pretty rough later on this year.
