Lisa Murkowski

After securing the Republican Party nomination by a wide margin, Murkowski was again reelected to the U.S. Senate in 2016. Joe Miller, this time running as the Libertarian Party nominee, was again the runner-up in the general election.

Murkowski faced the most difficult election of her career in the August 24, 2010, Republican Party primary election against Joe Miller, a former U.S. magistrate judge supported by former Governor Sarah Palin. The initial ballot count for the primary showed her trailing Miller by a margin of 51–49%, with absentee ballots yet to be tallied. After the first round of absentee ballots were counted on August 31, Murkowski conceded the race, stating that she did not believe that Miller's lead would be overcome in the next round of absentee vote count.

Following the outcome of the primary election, the Murkowski campaign floated the idea of her running as a Libertarian in the general election. But on August 29, 2010, the executive board of the state Libertarian Party voted not to consider allowing Murkowski on its ticket for the U.S. Senate race.

On September 17, 2010, Murkowski said that she would mount a write-in campaign for the Senate seat. Her write-in campaign was aided in large part with substantial monetary aid and assistance from the Native corporations and PACs, as well as support from state teachers' and firefighters' unions.

On November 17, 2010, the Associated Press reported that Murkowski had become only the second Senate candidate (after Strom Thurmond in 1954) to win a write-in campaign, thereby retaining her seat. Murkowski emerged victorious after a two-week count of write-in ballots showed she had overtaken Miller. Miller did not concede defeat. U.S. Federal District Judge Ralph Beistline granted an injunction to stop the certification of the election due to "serious" legal issues and irregularities raised by Miller as to the hand count of absentee ballots. On December 10, 2010, an Alaskan judge dismissed Miller's case, clearing the way for Murkowski's win; however, Miller appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court, and the results were not certified. On December 13, Miller appealed the Alaska Superior Court decision of the prior week to the Alaska Supreme Court. Miller's appeal was rejected by the state Supreme Court on December 22, 2010. On December 28, 2010, U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline dismissed Miller's lawsuit. Murkowski was certified as the winner on December 30 by Gov. Sean Parnell.

Senator Lisa Murkowski is widely perceived as a moderate Republican. Since winning re-election in 2010, her voting record has been deemed by some as "more moderate" when compared to her previous years in the Senate. The National Journal, in 2013, gave Murkowski a composite score of 56% conservative and 45% liberal. The National Journal ranked her as the 56th most liberal and 44th most conservative member of the Senate. According to GovTrack, Murkowski is the second most liberal Republican Senator and, as of 2017, is placed by GovTrack's analysis to the left of all Republicans, except Susan Collins, and to the left of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. The New York Times arranged Republican senators by ideology and also ranked Murkowski as the second most liberal Republican. In 2018, the fiscally conservative PAC Americans for Prosperity gave her a lifetime rating of 75% conservative and the ACU gave her a 52% conservative score in 2017. Americans for Democratic Action gave her a 2018 rating of 20% liberal. According to FiveThirtyEight, which tracks Congressional votes, Murkowski voted with President Trump's position approximately 74% of the time as of April 2020. According to CQ Roll Call, Murkowski voted with President Obama's position on votes 72.3% of the time in 2013, one of only two Republicans voting for his positions over 70% of the time.

In 2008, Murkowski amended her Senate financial disclosures for 2004 through 2006, adding income of $60,000 per year from the sale of a property in 2003, and more than $40,000 a year from the sale of her "Alaska Pasta Company" in 2005.

In July 2007, Murkowski stated she would sell back land she bought from Anchorage businessman Bob Penney, a day after a Washington watchdog group filed a Senate ethics complaint against her, alleging that Penney sold the property well below market value. The Anchorage Daily News noted, "The transaction amounted to an illegal gift worth between $70,000 and $170,000, depending on how the property was valued, according to the complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center." According to the Associated Press, Murkowski bought the land from two developers tied to the Ted Stevens probe.

Murkowski ran for and won a full term in 2004. She ran for a second term in 2010. After losing the Republican Party primary to Tea Party candidate Joe Miller, Murkowski ran as a write-in candidate and defeated both Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams in the general election; this made her the second U.S. Senator, the first being Strom Thurmond in 1954, to be elected by write-in vote. Although Murkowski has won three full terms to the Senate, she has never won a majority of the vote; she won pluralities in each of her three races, with 48.6% of the vote in 2004, 39.5% in 2010, and 44.4% in 2016.

Murkowski was elected to a full six-year term against former Democratic Governor Tony Knowles in the 2004 election after winning a primary challenge by a large margin. The two were in a dead heat in polls. The centrist Republican Main Street Partnership, which wanted to run TV ads for Murkowski, was told no air time was left to buy. Near the end of the general campaign, senior U.S. Senator Ted Stevens shot campaign ads for Murkowski and claimed that if a Democrat replaced Murkowski, the State of Alaska would likely receive fewer federal dollars.

Murkowski is the daughter of former U.S. Senator and Governor of Alaska, Frank Murkowski. Before her appointment to the Senate, she served in the Alaska House of Representatives and was eventually elected Majority Leader. She was appointed to the U.S. Senate by her father, who resigned his seat in December 2002 to become the Governor of Alaska. She completed her father's unexpired term, which ended in January 2005.

In December 2002, Murkowski—while a member of the state House—was appointed by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski, to fill his own U.S. Senate seat made vacant when he resigned from the Senate after being elected Governor.

In 1998, Murkowski was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives. Her District 18 included northeast Anchorage, Fort Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base (now Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, or JBER), and suburban parts of Eagle River-Chugiak. In 1999, she introduced legislation establishing a Joint Armed Services Committee. She was reelected in 2000 and, after her district boundaries changed, in 2002. That latter year she had a conservative primary opponent, Nancy Dahlstrom, who had challenged her because Murkowski had supported abortion rights and rejected conservative economics. Murkowski prevailed by only 56 votes. She was named as House Majority Leader for the 2003–2004 legislative session. She resigned her House seat before taking office, due to her appointment by her father to the seat he had vacated in the U.S. Senate, upon his stepping down to assume the Alaska governorship. Murkowski sat on the Alaska Commission on Post Secondary Education and chaired both the Labor and Commerce, and the Military and Veterans Affairs Committees. Upon her resigning and taking her Senate seat, her father appointed Dahlstrom, the choice of the District Republican committee, as her replacement.

She was employed as an attorney in the Anchorage District Court Clerk's office (1987–89). From 1989 to 1998, she was an attorney in private practice in Anchorage, Alaska. She also served, from 1990 to 1991, on the Mayor's Task Force for the Homeless.

She earned a B.A. degree in Economics from Georgetown University in 1980, the same year her father was elected to the U.S. Senate. She is a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and represented the state of Alaska as the 1980 Cherry Blossom Princess. She received her J.D. degree in 1985 from Willamette University College of Law.

Lisa Ann Murkowski (/m ɜːr ˈ k aʊ s k iː / ; born May 22, 1957) is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Alaska, having held that seat since 2002. She is a member of the Republican Party, and is the second most senior Republican woman in the Senate. Along with Susan Collins from Maine, she is frequently described as one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate and is a crucial swing voter.