Lisa Murkowski | |
---|---|
![]() Official portrait, 2017 | |
United States Senator from Alaska | |
Assumed office December 20, 2002 Serving with Dan Sullivan | |
Preceded by | Frank Murkowski |
Vice Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee | |
Assumed office February 3, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Tom Udall |
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2009 | |
Preceded by | Byron Dorgan |
Succeeded by | John Barrasso |
Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee | |
In office January 3, 2015 – February 3, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Mary Landrieu |
Succeeded by | Joe Manchin |
Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee | |
In office January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2015 | |
Preceded by | Pete Domenici |
Succeeded by | Maria Cantwell |
Vice Chair of the Senate Republican Conference | |
In office June 17, 2009 – September 17, 2010 | |
Leader | Mitch McConnell |
Preceded by | John Thune |
Succeeded by | John Barrasso |
Member of the Alaska House of Representatives from the 14th district | |
In office January 19, 1999 – December 20, 2002 | |
Preceded by | Terry Martin |
Succeeded by | Vic Kohring |
Personal details | |
Born | Lisa Ann Murkowski May 22, 1957 Ketchikan, Territory of Alaska, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Other political affiliations | No Labels[a] |
Spouse |
Verne Martell (m. 1987) |
Children | 2 |
Parent |
|
Education | Georgetown University (BA) Willamette University (JD) |
Signature | ![]() |
Website | Senate website |
Lisa Ann Murkowski (/mərˈkaʊski/ mər-KOW-skee; born May 22, 1957) is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Alaska, having held the seat since 2002. She is the first woman to represent Alaska in the Senate and the Senate's second-most senior Republican woman, after Susan Collins of Maine. She became dean of Alaska's congressional delegation upon Representative Don Young's death.
Murkowski is the daughter of former U.S. senator and governor of Alaska Frank Murkowski. Before her appointment to the Senate, she served in the Alaska House of Representatives and was elected majority leader. She was controversially appointed to the Senate by her father, who resigned his seat in December 2002 to become governor of Alaska. She completed her father's unexpired Senate term, which ended in January 2005, and became the first Alaskan-born member of Congress.
Murkowski ran for and won a full term in 2004. After losing the 2010 Republican primary to Tea Party candidate Joe Miller, she ran as a write-in candidate and defeated both Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams in the general election. She is the second U.S. senator (after Strom Thurmond in 1954) to be elected by write-in vote. She was elected to a third term in 2016 and a fourth term in 2022, running as a Republican.
Murkowski was vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference from 2009 to 2010, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 2015 to 2021, and has been vice chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee since 2021.
She is often described as one of the Senate's most moderate Republicans, and a crucial swing vote. According to CQ Roll Call, she voted with President Barack Obama's position 72.3% of the time in 2013, one of only two Republicans to do so over 70% of the time. In recent years, she opposed Brett Kavanaugh and supported Ketanji Brown Jackson in their respective nominations to the Supreme Court. On February 13, 2021, she was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial, for which she was censured by the Alaska Republican Party. In 2024, when asked if she intended to remain a Republican, Murkowski replied that she was "independently minded". Asked whether that meant she might drop her party affiliation, she responded: "I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let's just leave it at that."[2]
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