Murkowski backs Democrat for Alaska governor, snubbing Trump-endorsed Republican

One week before Election Day, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for governor of Alaska on Tuesday, bypassing three Republican candidates — including one backed by President Trump — and urging "Alaskans of every political stripe" to consider supporting him.

Our future is too important to be hamstrung by partisan divisions. 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.— Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska

Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state lawmaker from Sitka who represented a relatively conservative House district for a decade, leads polls in the four-way race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. He is running against former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, former state Attorney General Treg Taylor, and Bernadette Wilson, a small business owner whom Trump endorsed at an October 13 rally in Wasilla.

Murkowski told NBC affiliate KTUU in Anchorage that she sees all three Republican candidates as too partisan for Alaska's needs. "We need a governor who's going to work with the Legislature," she said. "That has got to happen for the delegation to be successful back in Washington, D.C." She described Kreiss-Tomkins as "a young Alaskan with a view and a perspective that I think Alaska needs right now — a freshness of energy, a commonsense guy who has a known ability to be working together."

The endorsement lands at a fraught moment in Murkowski's relationship with the White House. Last week, the Trump administration sued Alaska election officials, arguing that a Senate candidate named Dan J. Sullivan Jr. on the ballot could mislead voters who intended to support Murkowski's Republican colleague, Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. Murkowski publicly criticized the move. Trump responded the next day on social media, calling her "Republicans' Worst Senator, by far," according to NBC News.

The NBC News Decision Desk rates the Alaska governor's race as leaning Democratic — notable in a state Trump carried in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Kreiss-Tomkins raised roughly $1 million in October alone, more than three times what the three Republican candidates combined raised that month, according to The Alaska Current. The Republican Governors Association waited until September 30 to put $1.6 million into the race, far later than it had invested in Gov. Dunleavy's 2022 campaign.

Part of the Republican field's difficulty has been internal. At the Wasilla rally, Trump not only endorsed Wilson but called Bronson undeserving of his support and said he had "never heard of" Taylor, urging both to drop out. Neither did. That standoff kept major independent expenditure groups largely on the sidelines for much of the campaign, according to The Alaska Current.

Kreiss-Tomkins has made bipartisan cooperation the centerpiece of his campaign, pledging to fill his cabinet with Republicans and independents alongside Democrats. He welcomed Murkowski's endorsement, telling KTUU: "I have a lot of respect for Lisa, her integrity. I think she's worked across the aisle in Congress, which is a quality I really admire and hope to live up to if I'm elected governor."

I'm honored to have Senator Murkowski's support. Alaskans deserve a government that can work through disagreements and make progress on the issues that matter.— Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Democratic candidate for Alaska governor

Murkowski is not the only Republican backing the Democrat. Her father, former Gov. Frank Murkowski, co-authored an Anchorage Daily News op-ed published October 27 endorsing Kreiss-Tomkins alongside former independent Gov. Bill Walker and former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles. "Each of us knows firsthand that governing Alaska is no easy task," the three wrote. "It requires difficult decisions, sound judgment and the ability to bring people together to respond to the challenges you didn't see coming. Above all, it requires putting Alaska's interest ahead of partisan politics." A number of former Republican state legislators have also backed Kreiss-Tomkins, according to Alaska Public Media.

The context Murkowski pointed to is eight years of friction between Dunleavy and the Legislature's bipartisan and multipartisan majorities — clashes that produced a historically high number of vetoes and left issues from the state's structural budget deficit to energy costs and public school funding largely unresolved, according to The Alaska Current.

Wilson, the Trump-backed candidate, was unsparing in her response. "Given that Senator Lisa Murkowski abandoned Alaska values a long time ago, I am not surprised that she has endorsed 'Just Keep Taxing' JKT," she said, adding that she would actively campaign to unseat Murkowski when the senator is next on the ballot in 2028. Wilson co-chaired the conservative Joe Miller's campaign against Murkowski in 2010, according to Alaska Public Media.

As Governor, I will not be a sitting duck, and I can assure you, I will actively work to unseat the worst 'Republican' senator in the country.— Bernadette Wilson, Republican candidate for Alaska governor

Taylor called the cross-party endorsement "disappointing," while Bronson took a more measured tone, saying Murkowski was "entitled to endorse whoever she chooses, just as President Trump is."

Murkowski has a track record of occasional cross-party endorsements. She backed Democrat Mary Peltola in Peltola's 2024 U.S. House reelection race, and this cycle endorsed Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in his competitive Senate reelection bid — a race that also features Peltola as the Democratic candidate.

Why it matters — A sitting Republican senator's endorsement of the Democratic frontrunner — over a Trump-backed opponent — one week before a ranked-choice election in a reliably red state illustrates how Alaska's unusual political dynamics and internal Republican fractures could hand Democrats a governorship they haven't held in years.

Reported by thehill.com, nbcnews.com, politico.com, thealaskacurrent.com, justthenews.com, alaskapublic.org