Trump-backed Senate challenger Tshibaka says Murkowski has finally

EXCLUSIVE: Republican Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka says she was well prepared for Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska’s reelection announcement last week.

Tshibaka, who enjoys the backing and support of former President Trump as she challenges Murkowski, told Fox News in an exclusive interview that the longtime senator’s “been campaigning for months. She just hasn’t been honest about it. It’s nice that she’s finally calling it what it is and she’s come clean in saying she’s actually running for the Senate.”

The former Alaska commissioner of administration emphasized that “we’ve anticipated that Murkowski was going to run because she’s absolutely committed to maintaining the Murkowski political dynasty. I don’t think it changes anything for our race or how Alaskans feel.”

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That dynasty that Tshibaka spotlighted started with longtime Sen. Frank Murkowski, who after two decades in the Senate, won election in 2002 as Alaska governor. The elder Murkowski – in a controversial move at the time – appointed his daughter Lisa, who was serving as the Alaska House of Representatives majority leader, to fill the final two years of his Senate term.

Tshibaka emphasized that “Alaskans are ready for a change.”

Former Alaska commissioner of administration Kelly Tshibaka is supported by former President Trump as she primary challenges GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in the 2022 midterm elections.
(Tshibaka Senate campaign)

Murkowski, a moderate Republican with a history of working across the aisle to achieve bipartisan agreements, was one of seven GOP lawmakers in the Senate to vote to convict the former president in his February impeachment trial on charges of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. And she’s the only one of those seven running for reelection in next year’s midterms. 

Trump’s vowed to come to Alaska to campaign against the senator. Earlier this year he endorsed Tshibaka, and a couple of leading members of Trump’s 2020 presidential reelection inner circle are working as senior advisers on Tshibaka’s team.

Tshibaka’s headed to the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in February, where Trump’s scheduled to appear at a fundraiser for her campaign.

Murkowski’s call for Trump to resign following the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and her vote to convict Trump on charges he incited the attack weren’t the first times she’s raised his ire. The senator voted against a Republican-backed plan in 2017 to repeal the national health care law known as Obamacare, and a year later she opposed confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated by Trump.

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Tshibaka told Fox News that Trump has “said that he’s absolutely committed to helping out with…