American attorney and politician Lisa Ann Murkowski is the senior United States senator for Alaska. She was appointed in 2002 and won elections in 2004, 2010, and 2016. She’s currently seeking re-election for the Republican Party in the general election this November. She advanced as the top vote-getter in Alaska’s new ranked-choice primary elections, ahead of her Trump-endorsed Republican rival.
Murkowski was born in 1957 in Ketchikan, Alaska. Her father, Frank Murkowski, served as a U.S. senator from 1981 to 2002 and as the governor of Alaska from 2002 to 2006.
Murkowski received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgetown University and her doctorate from Willamette University College of Law. She practiced law in her early career, working in the Anchorage District Court Clerk's office and later as an attorney in private practice in Anchorage. Murkowski served three terms in the Alaska House of Representatives, but faced challenges over her support for abortion rights and more centrist economic approaches.
When Frank Murkowski resigned from the Senate in 2002 to become governor of Alaska, he appointed his daughter to the U.S. Senate seat. The move was controversial and left many voters upset about the nepotism. Despite this, she was elected to her first full term in 2004.
Murkowski struggled in the 2010 primary election, trailing behind Joe Miller. She rallied by mounting a victorious write-in campaign, only the second Senate candidate to ever win in this manner.
Murkowski will be going head to head in a battleground race against three other opponents in the 2022 election. More conservative factions of the Republican Party have again criticized Murkowski for her support for abortion rights and, more recently, gay marriage. Meanwhile, Murkowski is leaning on her seniority and her willingness to work with Democrats to help steer funding to Alaska.
"This race is about who can deliver the best for Alaska. Through my seniority and ability to work across party lines, I’m getting real results for Alaska,” she said in July from her Twitter account.
Murkowski voted to convict then-President Donald Trump after the U.S. House impeached him over the events surrounding the January 6 breach of the Capitol, has also emphasized her support for energy development in Alaska and said her vote for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has already brought in billions.