Establishment Sen. Lisa Murkowski Laments ‘I May Not Be Re-Elected’

Establishment Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) on Thursday admitted she may lose her primary bid to Donald Trump-endorsed candidate Kelly Tshibaka.

“I may not be re-elected,” Murkowski told the New York Times about the possible end of her 20-year Senate career.

“It may be that Alaskans say, ‘Nope, we want to go with an absolute, down-the-line, always, always, 100-percent, never-question, rubber-stamp Republican,’ she said about Tshibaka who is leading in the polls.

“And if they say that that’s the way that Alaska has gone — kind of the same direction that so many other parts of the country have gone — I have to accept that,” Murkowski added. “But I’m going to give them the option… Maybe I am just completely politically naïve, and this ship has sailed. But I won’t know unless we — unless I — stay out there and give Alaskans the opportunity to weigh in.”

Murkowski’s worries come as Tshibaka has picked up steam heading into the August 16 GOP primary. Tshibaka has won the endorsement of the Alaskan Republican Party and scored Trump’s endorsement. Polling is also favorable for Tshibaka.

A poll, sampled as Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system will hold the November election, discovered Tshibaka would win over 50 percent of the vote. Breitbart News’s Matt Boyle reported:

Conducted from March 14 to March 16, the survey of 500 likely voters in Alaska’s November general election found Tshibaka in the first round with a huge lead of more than double digits over Murkowski. On that first choice on the ballot, Tshibaka comes in with 45.4 percent and Murkowski at just 28.7 percent—with a generic Democrat close behind Murkowski and a libertarian candidate in fourth place. The poll’s margin of error is 4.21 percent.