Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) heads into the November midterm election against Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka having voted with Senate Democrats nine times in the last two years.
Murkowski, who has been in office for 21 years, is desperately fighting to save her political career. In Tuesday’s Alaska Republican primary, she only finished a few points ahead of Tshibaka. Both Murkowski and her opponent qualified in the primary to advance to the general election on November 8.
Murkowski was appointed to the Senate by her father, Frank Murkowski, who served in the Senate from 1981 to 2002 and was the governor of Alaska from 2002 until 2006.
1: Gun Control
Murkowski voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (S. 2938), which “is a package of different gun control proposals stitched together with school safety and mental health provisions,” the Heritage Foundation stated. Cheney voted on the 80-page bill just 72 hours after the legislative text was revealed. “Expecting members to understand the impacts of an 80-page bill in just 72 hours is irresponsible, not to mention the fact that it prevents the American people from weighing in on the package and having their voices heard.”
2: Corporate Bailout
Murkowski voted for the Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022 (S. 4008), which sent $48 billion into the economy that fueled President Joe Biden’s 40-year-high inflation. The bill was dubbed “COVID relief” and included “$40 billion to ‘backfill’ the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, $2 billion for gyms, $2 billion for live event servicers, $2 billion for transportation providers, $1.4 billion for businesses located near ports of entry that were closed due to the pandemic, and $500 million for minor league sports teams,” the Heritage Foundation stated.
3: Confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
Murkowski voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “In all my reviews of Supreme Court nominees, I look at their qualifications, independence, lack of bias, integrity, and temperament,” Murkowski stated. “Judge Jackson met the incredibly high bar I set for service on the highest court of the land.” Murkowski’s vote to confirm Jackson helped hand Biden and the Democrats an easy political win.
4: $1.5 Trillion Omnibus Spending
Murkowski voted for the $1.5 trillion Omnibus & Supplemental Package that spends $1.5 trillion on radical President Joe Biden’s policy initiatives “with an attached $13.6 billion for aid to Ukraine,” the Heritage Foundation calculated. “It fails to reverse the COVID-19 emergency or the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates, as conservative leaders have called for, and doubles down on the Green New Deal style government subsidies for green energy and climate policies.”
5: Federalize Local Elections
Murkowski voted to federalize local elections by voting for H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The bill intended to “overturn voter ID laws and prevent states from ensuring the integrity of their own elections,” the Heritage Foundation reported. “Essentially, the proposal hijacks the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by replacing the worthwhile goal of ending racial discrimination with the completely partisan goal of advancing liberal political candidates.”
6: $1.2 Trillion “Infrastructure” Bill
Murkowski voted for the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684), or the so-called “infrastructure” bill, which also fueled Biden’s 40-year-high inflation. “Despite McConnell’s praise for the bill, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the bill would add $256 billion to the deficit, and the Penn-Wharton Budget Model said the bill would add no ‘significant’ level of economic growth,” Breitbart News reported.
7: Confirmation of Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta
Murkowski voted to confirm the nomination of Gupta, who is the third-ranking official at the Department of Justice, working under Attorney General Merrick Garland. Gupta is a Black Lives Matter sympathizer. “It is also critical for state and local leaders to heed calls from Black Lives Matter and Movement for Black Lives activists to decrease police budgets,” she has said.
8: Confirmation of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Murkowski voted to confirm the nomination of Mayorkas, who has allowed at least 4.2 million illegal immigrants to cross the border since Biden took office, the Republican National Committee research team reported.
9: Impeachment of Former President Donald Trump
Seven GOP senators voted to impeach Trump in 2021: Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Of those seven senators, two are retiring: Burr and Toomey. Only Murkowski is running for reelection in 2022. It should be noted that 80 percent of the pro-impeachment House members will exit Congress in 2023.
“I have reached the conclusion that President Trump’s actions were an impeachable offense and his course of conduct amounts to incitement of insurrection as set out in the Article of Impeachment,” she said, explaining her vote.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.