The GOP Senator aims to maintain her Senate seat in November's midterm.
Despite Trump's endorsement of Tshibaka, recent polls suggest that Murkowski is still well positioned to hold on to her seat. However, Alaska is also implementing a new nonpartisan ranked-choice primary system, as well as ranked-choice general election ballots this year—making final results less easy to predict with some accuracy. Analysts have speculated that the new system could benefit Murkowski.
GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is hoping to defeat a Donald Trump-backed opponent, Kelly Tshibaka, in August's primary and retain her seat in November's general election. Above left, Murkowski walks to the Senate chambers on May 11. Above right, Tshibaka speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24 in Orlando, Florida.Murkowski leading Tshibaka by double digits among likely voters in Alaska.
A previous poll, carried out from March 14 to 16, boded better for Tshibaka. The Trump-backed challenger was narrowly ahead of Murkowski by 2 points in that survey by Cygnal, which was commissioned by Tshibaka's campaign. The GOP senator received about 49 percent of the vote, as opposed to her rival's approximately 51 percent. Five hundred Alaskans were surveyed.
While the most recent Alaska Survey Research poll showed that Murkowski was well positioned compared with Tshibaka, the survey also demonstrated a notable decline from a previous one conducted last October. That autumn poll of 969 registered voters put the incumbent 20 points ahead of her opponent. Murkowski had the backing of 60 percent of voters, compared with just 40 percent for Tshibaka.
Under Alaska's new ranked-choice system, whether Murkowski or Tshibaka is the most popular candidate amongwill have less of an impact. The nonpartisan primary system the state is implementing allows the top four candidates, regardless of party affiliation, to advance to the general election. Website FiveThirtyEight assesses that Alaska has a 14.