Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins for governor over three GOP candidates, extending a record of party breaks that already drew President Trump’s public rebuke.
Breitbart reported that Murkowski is supporting Kreiss-Tompkins in the November contest to replace outgoing two-term Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a four-way race that also features Republicans Bernadette Wilson, Dave Bronson, and Treg Taylor.
Kreiss-Tompkins is the only Democrat on the ballot. Wilson carries President Trump’s endorsement. Alaska still uses ranked-choice voting, the system that lets voters rank candidates in order and can shift final results after lower finishers are eliminated.
Murkowski framed the pick as a bid for cross-party governing. Just The News carried her fuller statement and noted polling that has shown Kreiss-Tompkins leading the Republican field.
She said:
"Jonathan understands that governing requires listening to people with different perspectives and finding common ground to solve the problems all of us face. Alaska needs a serious conversation about our fiscal future, as well as a focus on the cost of energy and growing our economy. I believe Jonathan is committed to working toward solutions that serve all Alaskans, regardless of party."
That language puts a bipartisan gloss on a choice that leaves three Republicans without her backing in an open governor’s race.
This endorsement did not arrive in isolation. In 2024, Murkowski backed Democrat Mary Peltola’s failed bid to keep her U.S. House seat. The same year, she told CNN she refused to vote for Donald Trump in the presidential race.
After Trump won, she voted against several of his key nominees. Those included Pete Hegseth for Secretary of War, Harmeet Dhillon for assistant attorney general, Emil Bove for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Todd Blanche for attorney general.
Each of those votes was a public break with a Republican president’s personnel choices. The governor endorsement now extends that pattern into a statewide executive race at home.
On October 24, Trump answered on Truth Social. He labeled Murkowski “Republicans’ Worst Senator, by far.” He also attacked Alaska’s ranked-choice system as “a TOTAL DEMOCRAT SCAM meant to confuse the Voter” and urged Alaskans to repeal it in the coming general election.
Trump’s post tied the voting rules directly to the same November ballot that will pick Dunleavy’s successor. Wilson is the Republican he has endorsed in that field.
Murkowski’s statement never addressed Trump’s criticism or the three Republicans she passed over. She kept the focus on “common ground” and energy costs while handing her support to the lone Democrat.
Under ranked-choice voting, a fragmented Republican vote can help a Democrat finish first even when the combined GOP total is larger. With Wilson, Bronson, and Taylor all on the ballot, and only one Democrat, the mechanics matter.
Murkowski knows the system. She has won under it. She also knows that her endorsement signals to soft Republicans and independents that the Democrat is the “serious” option on fiscal and energy questions.
Just The News reported that available polls already showed Kreiss-Tompkins ahead of the Republicans. An establishment Republican senator amplifying that Democrat only widens the lane.
Alaska faces real pressure on energy prices, budgets, and growth. Those are the issues Murkowski named. They are also issues Republicans usually claim as their ground. Endorsing the Democrat concedes that ground in public.
Murkowski still carries the Republican label in the Senate. Her recent choices tell a clearer story than the label does. She backed Peltola. She refused Trump. She opposed Hegseth, Dhillon, Bove, and Blanche. Now she is elevating Kreiss-Tompkins over three Republicans, including the president’s pick.
Voters can weigh her “common ground” rhetoric against that list. The conduct is consistent. The party loyalty is not.
Trump’s October 24 post put the conflict in plain terms. He called her the worst Republican senator and called ranked-choice voting a scam designed to confuse voters. Murkowski answered by endorsing the Democrat anyway.
November will test whether Alaska Republicans accept that bargain or reject both the endorsement and the voting system Trump wants repealed.
When a Republican senator keeps picking Democrats and blocking her own party’s nominees, voters are entitled to treat the party label as optional, and to answer at the ballot box.
