Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is still signaling that she will not vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. This would be a grievous misstep and likely will spell an end to her time in the Senate.
Murkowski said that she hasn’t changed her mind on opposing Barrett’s confirmation after meeting with the prospective justice. Murkowski has said that she wants to stick to the election-year standard that Republicans applied to Merrick Garland in 2016, though she has consistently misstated the position Sen. Mitch McConnell took.
At this point, Murkowski may as well be demanding a Republican primary challenge for her 2022 reelection campaign. She was also one of the senators who tanked the GOP’s attempt to repeal Obamacare in the Senate, and this would mark the second consecutive Supreme Court nominee that she rejected after refusing to vote for Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
It’s the Kavanaugh vote that sticks out for Murkowski. Even her fellow GOP centrist Sen. Susan Collins, who is also opposing Barrett’s nomination, was willing to stand against the smear attempts Democrats brought against Kavanaugh. Collins gave a heartfelt defense of due process and the presumption of innocence while affirming her vote for Kavanaugh; Murkowski meekly voted present.
What’s more is that Murkowski’s habit of letting down Republicans in every meaningful vote has not earned her much bipartisan goodwill in her state. Morning Consult had Murkowski’s net approval rating at zero at the end of 2019, with her 41% disapproval rating being the fourth-highest in the Senate.
Murkowski has drawn primary fire before. She lost to Joe Miller in the Republican primary in 2010 before escaping with a write-in victory in the general election, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin signaled a possible 2022 run after Murkowski’s opposition to Kavanaugh.
Hey @LisaMurkowski – I can see 2022 from my house…
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) October 5, 2018
Palin presents a unique threat: She left office as a popular governor, and if Joe Biden manages to win the White House, it could inspire a Tea Party resurgence for the 2022 election cycle. Murkowski’s write-in campaign managed to escape Miller in 2010 by just 4 percentage points. Would she really be able to hold off Palin, a former Tea Party darling, in a similar environment?
Barrett is immensely qualified, as was Kavanaugh. Murkowski was inexplicably unwilling to back the latter, but she still has a chance to give Barrett her support. If not, don’t be surprised to see the challengers begin to circle as Alaska Republicans ask what she has done for them lately.
