The Republican Party of Alaska voted to censor American Senator Lisa Murkowski and will recruit an opponent to run against her in next year’s election.
According to party rules, a censorship resolution is just “an official rebuke and disapproval”, but an image of Saturday’s resolution, posted online, explicitly states that the party “will thereby recruit a Party opponent Republican to oppose and ban Senator Murkowski from being a candidate in any Republican primary to the extent legally permitted. ”
“We are looking for someone else to be our US senator in 2022, and someone who is more in line with Republican philosophy,” said Kris Warren, who wrote Saturday’s resolution and serves as President of the Republican Party in Anchorage. District of the house.
He confirmed the veracity of the resolution, which has not yet been shared by the State Party.
Party President Glenn Clary did not respond to a phone call on Monday asking for comment, and messages left at the party’s offices in Anchorage were not immediately returned.
A message left with Murkowski’s press secretary in Washington, DC, was not immediately returned, but in February, Murkowski was asked about censorship resolutions at the district level.
“I maintain my position. If I had to take that vote again, I would vote to keep my oath of office, ”she said. “And if the party blames me because it felt I needed to support it, they can make that statement, but I will make the statement again that my obligation is to support the Constitution that I have promised to defend, and I will do that, even if it means oppose the direction of my state party. “
Alaska’s new electoral system, approved by voters last year, may dilute the impact of the resolution. Alaska no longer has a party system in which only one candidate advances for the November elections.
Instead, four candidates will advance from the primaries to the November general election, and the ballot may list several candidates from the same party.
Saturday’s vote is not the only one nationally. Similar polls have taken place across the country against Republicans who supported the impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
Warren said he presented the resolution “shortly after the Senate impeachment vote.”
“The party has been upset with Senator Murkowski for some time,” he said. “And, in fact, we have considered a similar resolution in the past. But I think what happened here in the last few months is kind of the last straw. We felt that we had to make a strong statement. “
The resolution’s image posted online cites unhappiness with Murkowski’s votes on impeachment, a vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act, a vote against confirmation by US Supreme Court judge Brett Kavanaugh, and votes that support the confirmation of Deb Haaland as secretary of the interior. (Haaland faces a final confirmation vote on Monday.)
Because of these actions and others, the resolution says: “the Republican Party of Alaska through this censorship of Senator Lisa Murkowski for her votes and actions contrary to the platform of the Republican Party of Alaska and the best interests of the state of Alaska”.