Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is once again demonstrating her willingness to challenge political convention, leaving the door slightly ajar to the possibility of caucusing with Democrats if control of the Senate comes down to a 50-50 split after the 2027 midterms. While stopping well short of any commitment, Murkowski described the idea as “an interesting hypothetical” during a recent appearance on the GD Politics podcast with Galen Druke.
“You started off with the right hook here,” Murkowski told Druke, acknowledging that her primary concern is serving Alaska, not rigid party loyalty. “That’s why this book is kind of scary,” she added, referencing her new memoir, Far From Home. “Now people know what motivates me, and it’s this love for Alaska and what I can do.”
Pressed repeatedly about the potential of caucusing with Democrats, Murkowski emphasized that her decisions would be guided by effectiveness, not ideology. She acknowledged the flaws on both sides of the aisle: “As challenged as we may be on the Republican side, I don’t see the Democrats being much better.”
Druke raised the idea that Murkowski wouldn’t necessarily need to become a Democrat to caucus with them, pointing to Alaska’s own state legislature, where bipartisan coalitions are common. Murkowski agreed that such a governing style was familiar to Alaskans, though not to Washington. “This is one of the reasons people are not surprised that I don’t neatly toe the line with party initiatives,” she said. “We can govern together for the good of the state.”
Still, Murkowski was careful not to signal a formal break with the GOP. “I can’t be somebody that I’m not,” she said, recalling her own political resilience—surviving a 2010 primary defeat by running and winning as a write-in candidate. “I can’t now say that I want this job so much that I’m going to pretend to be somebody that I’m not.”
When pressed again, she conceded, “There’s some openness to exploring something different than the status quo.”
Murkowski, one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial, has often found herself politically isolated. She has criticized her party’s approach to foreign policy—particularly in relation to Ukraine—and expressed skepticism toward GOP leadership’s push to fast-track Trump’s legislative agenda, calling the July 4 deadline for what Trump has dubbed his “big, beautiful bill” “arbitrary.”
In recent comments to The Washington Post, Murkowski admitted she sometimes feels “afraid” to speak candidly among her Republican colleagues due to fear of retaliation. “We used to be called the world’s greatest deliberative body,” she said. “I think we’re still called it, but now I wonder if it’s in air quotes.”
