When looking at the Senate Republican conference, wondering which of its members are likely to be a thorn in Donald Trump’s side in the coming years, many tend to focus on Maine’s Susan Collins. The five-term GOP incumbent is generally seen as her party’s most centrist member on Capitol Hill, and in two years, Collins will be running for re-election in a state the president-elect lost by roughly seven points.
But when compiling a list of GOP senators who’ll likely break ranks in the next Congress, I’m less interested in the Mainer and more interested in Alaska’s senior senator. Politico reported:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday she felt ‘more comfortable’ with no party label than with ‘an identity as a Republican,’ an escalation of the Alaska senator’s occasional bucking of her party as the chamber readies itself for a slew of confirmation battles over Trump administration nominees.
“I’m not attached to a label, I’d rather be that ‘no label,’” Murkowski said at an event hosted by a group called No Labels. “I’d rather be that person that is just known for trying to do right by the state and the people that I serve, regardless of party, and I’m totally good and comfortable with that.”
Some caveats are in order. At the same event, the Alaskan added that she’s “still a Republican,” and there’s never been the slightest indication that Murkowski would even consider becoming a Democrat.
But it’s also true that her attachment to the GOP is increasingly tenuous.
“We’ve got a system in the Senate where there are two sides of the aisle, and I have to sit on one side or I have to sit on the other,” Murkowski added at the event, reinforcing a degree of indifference to her current party affiliation.
As regular readers know, the Alaskan’s independent streak has become increasingly obvious throughout the Trump era.
When her party tried to replace the Affordable Care Act with a far-right alternative, for example, Murkowski balked and helped save the health care reform law. When her party rallied behind Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, she was literally the only GOP senator to vote no.
While Murkowski didn’t vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, she was one of a handful of GOP senators to concede that his extortion scheme toward Ukraine was wrong — and a year later, she did vote with Democrats to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.
Indeed, just two days after the Jan. 6 attack, Murkowski was one of a tiny number of congressional GOP members who publicly called for Trump’s immediate resignation. “I want him to resign. I want him out,” she said on Jan. 8, 2021. The senator added, in reference to her party’s president, “He needs to get out.”
She went on to tell The Anchorage Daily News, “I will tell you, if the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me.”
In 2023, she also said, “Now our party is becoming known as a group of kind of extremist, populist over-the-top [people] where no one is taking us seriously anymore.” The senator added, “I’m having more ‘rational Republicans’ coming up to me and saying, ‘I just don’t know how long I can stay in this party.’” Murkowski — who faced right-wing challengers in two recent re-election campaigns and had to run a write-in campaign in 2010 after losing a GOP primary — went on to say, “You have people who felt some allegiance to the party that are now really questioning, ‘Why am I [in the party?]’” Earlier this year, the Alaskan not only endorsed Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign, Murkowski also announced that she wouldn’t support Trump in the general election. It’s against this backdrop that the senator said this week that she feels “more comfortable” with no party label than with “an identity as a Republican.” Asked nine months ago whether she would be open to being an independent who caucuses with Republicans, Murkowski replied, “I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that.” If Murkowski does leave the GOP, no one in the party can say they weren’t warned. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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