On Monday, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka formally filed the paperwork to appear on the August primary ballot as a challenger to incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Tshibaka said that she initially decided to enter the race after Sen. Murkowski cast the tie-breaking vote to advance the nomination of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Tshibaka filed her paperwork at the Alaska Division of Elections office in Anchorage before hosting the opening of a campaign office in the city later that afternoon. She launched her campaign on March 29, 2021, and was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in June 2021.
On the campaign trail, Tshibaka has stated that Murkowski ‘votes with her Washington, D.C. friends against the interests of Alaskans.’ She also has made the claim that Murkowski has voted to confirm more than 90% of the president’s cabinet nominees, including, most recently, voting to confirm Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
According to the Alaska Division of Elections, over 10 candidates have filed to run in the U.S. Senate race. This race will also be conducted using ranked choice voting. With ranked choice voting, all candidates running for a specific office run in the primary together, and the top four vote-getters advance to the general election. Then, voters rank the candidates by their political preference.
