Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-A.K., implied she is no longer a Republican on Thursday just as the U.S. Senate prepares for contentious battles over President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
“I’m not attached to a label, I’d rather be that ‘no label.’ I’d rather be that person that is just known for trying to do right by the state and the people that I serve, regardless of party, and I’m totally good and comfortable with that,” Murkowski said Thursday.
Murkowski made the statement while appearing at the centrist third-party No Labels meeting at the Washington’s Mayflower Hotel.
“We’ve got a system in the Senate where there are two sides of the aisle, and I have to sit on one side or I have to sit on the other,” the Alaska senator, who has served since 2003, said.
But Murkowski later insisted she has “never shed my party label” despite her independent stance.
“I don’t think I’ve made any secret of the fact that I’m more of a Ronald Reagan Republican than I am a Trump Republican,” Murkowski said. “And someone said, ‘Well, you aren’t really a Republican at all.’ And I said, ‘You can call me whatever you want to call me.'”
Murkowski said there will be challenges for her ahead under Trump, and said “it’s going to be hard in these next four years” because the administration’s “approach is going to be: Everybody tow the line. Everybody line up. We got you here, and if you want to survive, you better be good. Don’t get on Santa’s naughty list here, because we will primary you.”
She specifically referenced Sen. Joni Ernst’s situation regarding Pete Hegseth’s Defense Secretary nomination. Ernst waived on confirming Trump’s pick, which led to political backlash.
Despite Ernst being “one of the more conservative, principled Republican leaders in the Senate right now,” Murkowski said after conservatives attacked her “for not being good enough.”
Murkowski has consistently broken with her party on crucial votes, including opposing Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation in 2018 and becoming the only Republican senator to vote for Trump’s impeachment in 2021.
Murkowski and other Republican leaders like Sens. Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, and Ernst are potential obstacles to Trump’s Cabinet nominees, though Ernst has recently shifted to support Hegseth following pressure from Trump allies.