Kelly Tshibaka, a conservative Republican who recently announced plans to run against Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), said Alaskans feel hurt, betrayed, and forgotten by the incumbent senator — one of the GOP senators who voted to convict former President Trump — during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.
Tshibaka (pictured), who has led the Department of Administration since early 2019, announced her challenge this week, stating it is time for D.C. insiders to be accountable “to us.”
The people of Alaska, Tshibaka said, “feel forgotten,” explaining that Murkowski has become “a lot more like those D.C. insiders than us.”
“She’s been voting with them, hurting our way of life, and she’s not standing up to the radical Biden administration while they kill our oil and gas jobs,” she told Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle. “She’s voted to allow illegal immigrants to come into our country. Even if they commit crime, they can stay here. She was the deciding vote to keep Obamacare and that means higher health care costs and fewer healthcare choices for us in Alaska. We have some of the highest health care costs in the country.”
“She votes against common-sense judges that keep and protect our Second Amendment rights,” she said, noting Murkowski stands as one of the GOP senators who voted to convict former President Trump in the Senate impeachment trial earlier this year. “So, for all of those reasons, we are absolutely fed up with Lisa Murkowski. She was censured by the Alaska Republican Party and they said inside our borders she’s not allowed to be called a Republican anymore. I want to go to the Senate and I want to fight for Alaska.”
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Murkowski did not vote for Trump in 2020 despite his policies helping the people of Alaska. Biden, Tshibaka said, attacked Alaska right when he came in office by shutting down oil and gas drilling.
“She acted like she was surprised even though, in [Biden’s] debates, he said he was going to do it. He shut down our oil and gas drilling. Alaska and our companies knew it. In contrast, what we heard under Trump is he opened up ANWR for oil and gas drilling and pushed back six decades of restrictions,” she said.
Other Biden policies have proven to be terrible for the state, she said, pointing to the left’s attack on the Second Amendment, which she described as the “way of life” for Alaskans.
“We have to take care of ourselves against the bears but we also have a major crime problem in Alaska,” she said, also pointing to the Biden’s immigration policies, particularly his plans to fly illegal immigrants to northern states like Montana “where they’re now just a car ride away from our border.”
Alaskans, she continued, want oil and gas jobs back and a “new generation Alaska conservative who’s pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, who believes in America First, to go to the Senate and represent them.”
Further, Alaskans do not trust Murkowski will take a stand against the radical left’s amnesty efforts, particularly given her history as one of the Republicans who voted for the 2013 Gang of Eight amnesty plan. Murkowski has yet to say if she supports the House-passed amnesty bills, the Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
Tshibaka said Alaskans expect Murkowski to support amnesty again, but Alaskans “support safe and legal immigration.”
The Senate hopeful noted the GOP has supported Murkowski in the past but explained the state also voted for Trump twice because he was good for Alaska — something she said even moderates and independents recognized.
As a result, she said there is a “large grassroots groundswell” against Murkowski, telling Breitbart News Saturday that people have been approaching her about it for a year, including former Murkowski campaign staffers.
“Everybody’s really upset and they feel betrayed, they feel hurt — they feel forgotten by Lisa Murkowski. So this isn’t an act of thoughtless passion by a homegrown Alaskan girl who’s got aspiration for a Senate seat. Not at all,” she said.
“I want to help Alaska. I want to get us back on track. I’d like to see our economy booming again. I want to fight and defend our Second Amendment rights. I want to see government work for the people and see it smaller, our taxes reduced. I want to see our military supported. I want to see the Alaskans here on the ground feel like their voices [are] being heard and represented in D.C., because that’s what you hear when you talk to people. ‘Lisa’s forgotten us.’ Everybody liked and supported Lisa at one point. There’s a reason she’s been there 20 years and they feel like she doesn’t remember her Alaska roots, and she’s just lost touch with all of us.”
“That’s the sentiment that you’re seeing when you see people who used to work on her campaign and be totally sold out for her say, ‘I’m going to come over and help you win this seat,'” Tshibaka added.