Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski doesn’t rule out leaving the Republican Party and insists she won’t vote for Donald Trump in 2024

Sen. Lisa Murkowski isn’t ruling out leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent as the GOP shifts toward Donald Trump and she distances herself.

The centrist Republican senator from Alaska was one of seven who voted in favor of Trump’s second impeachment following the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. But MAGA attempts in the 2022 midterm elections to oust Murkowksi from his seat as punishment for their vote were unsuccessful.

Murkowski, who has represented Alaska in the United States Senate since 2002, he told CNN who will not vote for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

“I wish we, as Republicans, had a candidate I could support,” he said. “I certainly can’t support Donald Trump.”

Both Murkowski and moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine endorsed former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in her bid to beat Trump in the primary just days before she dropped out.

In Congress there has recently been a trend for lawmakers to become dealigned with the party in which they ran when they were originally elected to office. Some have crossed over completely while others have decided to go independent.

When asked if she was thinking about leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent, Murkowski told CNN, “Oh, I think I’m very independent-minded.”

“I’m just sorry that our party is apparently becoming a Donald Trump party,” he added.

‘I am going through very interesting political times. Let’s leave it at that,’ she clarified when pressed on whether she intends to change parties.

Murkowski said she “absolutely” could not support Trump’s third consecutive presidential bid in November and specifically reiterated her stance that he incited the Capitol riot after the 2020 presidential election while trying to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

“What happened on January 6 was … an effort by people who broke into the building in an effort to stop the electoral certification of an election,” he said.

“You can’t defend yourself.”

Trump went to Anchorage, Alaska, in July 2022 to support Kelly Tshibaka, who was challenging Murkowski for her Senate seat.

Tshibaka’s effort to unseat the Republican senator, whose rise to the seat was controversial, was unsuccessful.

Senator Murkowski was first appointed to her position by her father, Frank Murkowski, who had resigned his Senate seat to be sworn in as governor of Alaska at the time.

She completed her father’s term in the Senate and was elected to her first full term beginning in January 2005.