Former President Donald Trump said Saturday he would campaign against Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in 2022 when she is due for reelection.
“I will not be endorsing, under any circumstances, the failed candidate from the great State of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski,” Trump said in a statement Politico first reported.
“She represents her state badly and her country even worse. I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be — in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad Senator,” Trump continued.
Trump also pledged to campaign against Murkowski in a series of tweets in June 2020.
Murkowski was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial in January and is the only one going up against voters next year.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), widely viewed as the head of the establishment wing of the GOP, said recently that he would back Murkowski regardless of what Trump says.
“Absolutely,” McConnell replied when CNN asked if the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) would support Murkowski.
Trump used Murkowski’s vote to confirm Deb Haaland, then President Joe Biden’s Interior Secretary nominee, as a reason for Alaskans to oppose Murkowski.
“(Murkowski’s) vote to advance radical left Democrat (sic) Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior is yet another example of Murkowski not standing up for Alaska,” Trump said in a statement.
Murkowski has survived a primary challenge from the right before going on to win in a general election. In 2010, after she lost the GOP nomination, she won her Senate race in the general election as a write-in candidate.