They belong to the most prominent Republican families in their states. They are among the Republicans who most criticized Donald Trump from within and following the January 6 insurrection they supported his political trial.
For all the similarities, however, the political careers of Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Liz Cheney are sure to take very different directions in Tuesday’s primary.
Murkowski has good prospects in his and is already thinking regarding the general elections at the end of the year, while Cheney will hardly be able to retain his seat in the lower house in the face of the challenge of Harriet Hageman, a candidate supported by Trump, and is focused on a future that might include a run for president.
The characteristics of their states affect the possibilities of both of retaining their seats. Wyoming is a Trump stronghold and gave him his biggest victory in the 2020 election, while Alaska tends to favor candidates capable of taking independent stands.
Murkowski has an added advantage in the way Alaska’s election will be conducted this year.
The winner-takes-all system, like the one Cheney has, has been replaced by a voter-approved process in which all candidates are grouped together. The four most voted, regardless of their party, advance to the general elections, in which a system of voting by preference is used. That way, Murkowski doesn’t have to run in a Republican primary, in which he would have had “a zero percent chance of winning,” according to Alaskan pollster Ivan Moore. “I insist, zero percent.”
Murkowski has 18 rivals in his primary, including Kelly Tshibaka, whom Trump supports. The official candidate of the Democratic Party, meanwhile, is Pat Chesbro, a retired teacher.
Murkowski is confident of surviving the election because the system used requires forming alliances.
“That’s my forte, that’s what I do,” he said.
Trump has harshly criticized Murkowski. At a rally with Tshibaka and Sarah Palin, whom he endorsed for Alaska’s only House seat, the former president called Murkowski “the worst. Number one among the bad guys.”
Murkowski, for his part, affirmed that Trump does not influence his campaign, although he admitted that he faces a tough challenge.
Indeed, your task will not be easy. The Alaska Republican Party admonished her for several reasons, including her vote to impeach Trump, her criticism of the former president and her support of Deb Haaland’s nomination for secretary of the interior.
Chuck Kopp, a former Republican state legislator, says the old system was extremely partisan and the new one is much better. He added that while he hasn’t always supported Murkowski, she “has been very brave in doing what’s best for the country.”
“It has shown that the cult of personality is not a conservative belief, that conspiracy theories are not conservative, and that treating politics as a religion is not conservative either,” said Kopp, who suspects that Murkowski has much more support than he realizes. think the game.
Murkowski has held a seat since 1981 that previously belonged to his father, Frank Murkowski, who left it when he was elected governor.
State Representative Zack Fields said Murkowski “has shown that he believes in democracy and that he will work with others to achieve what is best for the citizenry. That’s dangerous today.”
Fields called the Jan. 6, 2021, takeover of Congress “a horrible thing,” but “more terrifying is the fact that so many elected officials and senior leaders forgive it, justify it, and embolden those who put democracy in jeopardy.”
Cheney, the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and vice chair of the House committee investigating the insurrection, continues to criticize Trump even though it may cost her dearly given the ascendancy she still has in her party.
“The lie that the 2020 election was stolen is insidious,” he said last Thursday. “He takes advantage of people who love their country. It is a door that Trump opened to manipulate people into abandoning his principles, sacrificing their freedoms, justifying violence, ignoring the rules of the courts and the rule of law.”
He added that “that is the legacy of Donald Trump, but it cannot be the future of our country.”
