Sen. Lisa Murkowski endorsed the Democratic candidate for governor in her home state of Alaska on Tuesday, snubbing GOP contenders including a Trump-backed candidate with a week to go until Election Day.
Murkowski, one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics among Senate Republicans, said she supports Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins over Bernadette Wilson, who has Trump’s backing.
“JKT is a young Alaskan with a point of view and perspective that I think Alaska needs right now — a freshness of energy, a common-sense guy who has a known ability to work together,” she said in an interview on Anchorage’s NBC affiliate KTUU.
Murkowski said she thought the three Republican gubernatorial candidates on the ballot in Alaska, which chose ranked-choice voting, were too partisan.
“We need a governor who will work with the Legislature,” she said. “This must happen for the delegation to succeed in Washington, D.C.”
Kreiss-Tompkins, a former state lawmaker, told KTUU he was grateful for Murkowski’s support.
“I have a lot of respect for Lisa, for her integrity. I think she’s worked on the other side of Congress, which is a quality that I really admire and hope to live up to if I’m elected governor,” he said. “And I’m very grateful that she wanted to step up and be part of the coalition that we’re building.”
He added that they’ve “had some conversations” as her campaign has progressed, “and I think she’s just gotten to a point where she feels like she has confidence in our ticket and our ability to solve Alaska’s problems.”
In the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Kreiss-Tomkins is competing with former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, former state Attorney General Treg Taylor and Wilson, whom Trump endorsed this month.
The NBC News Decision Desk considers the gubernatorial race in Alaska, where Trump won in 2016, 2020 and 2024, to lean Democratic.
In his comments to KTUU, Murkowski raised concerns that Wilson would not work with Democrats at any time.
Wilson rejected his endorsement.
“Given that Senator Lisa Murkowski abandoned Alaska values a long time ago, I am not surprised that she supported the ‘Just Keep Taxing’ JKT,” she said in a statement, arguing that “Kreiss-Tomkins’ allegiance is to extremist socialists determined to fight President Trump at the expense of ordinary Alaskans.”
Murkowski, who is not up for re-election until 2028, supported Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in his re-election bid this year. He is in a competitive race that includes a candidate named Dan J. Sullivan Jr. and Democratic candidate Mary Peltola.
The Trump administration sued election officials in Alaska last week, arguing that Sullivan Jr.’s appearance on the ballot could mislead voters who intended to support Sullivan’s re-election.
Murkowski criticized the move, writing on »
Trump ripped Murkowski the next day on social media, calling her “by far the worst Republican senator.”
Gn headline
