Lisa Murkowski

Lisa Ann Murkowski (
mər-KOW-ski; born May 22, 1957) is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator from the state of Alaska, having held the seat since 2002. She is the first woman to represent Alaska in the U.S. Congress and is the Senate's second-most senior Republican woman. Murkowski 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. She was appointed to the Senate by her father, who resigned his seat in 2002 to become Alaska's governor. Murkowski became the first Alaskan-born member of Congress and completed her father's unexpired Senate term, which ended in January 2005. Before her appointment to the Senate, she had been a member of the Alaska House of Representatives since 1999. Murkowski ran for and won a full term in 2004 with 48% of the vote. 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. Murkowski was reelected in 2016 and again in 2022. She was vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference from 2009 to 2010 and chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 2015 to 2021. She served as vice chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee from 2021 to 2025 and has served as chair of the committee since January 2025.
Murkowski is often described as one of the Senate's most moderate Republicans and a swing vote. According to Roll Call, she voted with President Barack Obama's position 72.3% of the time in 2013; she was one of only two Republicans to vote with Obama over 70% of the time. She opposed Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination in 2018 and supported Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination in 2022. In 2021, she was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial; the Alaska Republican Party censured her for that vote. Murkowski was a pivotal Republican vote for the first Trump administration's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the second Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Born, in its opening lines

May 22, 1957

From the Wikipedia article “Lisa Murkowski” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Murkowski), by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Copied November 13, 2026; not changed.

Described as

United States Senator from Alaska since 2002

Other names

Lisa Ann Murkowski

Born

May 22, 1957

Born in

Ketchikan · 1 reference

Citizen of

United States

Occupation

politician · 2 references; lawyer (1989–1996) · 1 reference

Positions held

lawyer (1987–1989) · 1 reference; member of the Alaska House of Representatives (1999–) · 2 references; United States senator (2002–) · 1 reference; Vice Chairman of the United States Senate Republican Conference (2009–2010)

Political party

Republican Party · 1 reference

Education

Georgetown University (–1980) · 1 reference; Willamette University (1975–1977) · 1 reference; Willamette University College of Law (–1985) · 1 reference; Monroe Catholic High School · 1 reference

Member of

Alaska Bar Association · 1 reference

Awards

Alaska Women's Hall of Fame (2009) · 1 reference; Knights of the Order of the Falcon (2021) · 1 reference

Spouse

Verne Martell (1987–)

Father

Frank Murkowski · 1 reference

Religion

Catholic Church · 1 reference

Website

https://www.murkowski.senate.gov · 1 reference

Wikipedias with a page

45

Wikidata item Q22360 (wikidata.org/wiki/Q22360), public domain (CC0). Copied November 14, 2026.