Lisa Ann Murkowski is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator representing Alaska, having held that seat since 2002.
34 Facts About Lisa Murkowski
2.
Lisa Murkowski is the Senate's second-most senior Republican woman, after Susan Collins of Maine.
3.
Lisa Murkowski became dean of Alaska's Congressional delegation upon Representative Don Young's death.
4.
Lisa Murkowski was controversially appointed to the Senate by her father, who resigned his seat in December 2002 to become governor of Alaska.
5.
Lisa Murkowski completed her father's unexpired Senate term, which ended in January 2005, and became the first Alaskan-born member of Congress.
6.
Lisa Murkowski is the second US senator to be elected by write-in vote.
7.
Lisa Murkowski was elected to a third term in 2016 and a fourth term in 2022, running as a Republican.
8.
Lisa Murkowski was vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference from 2009 to 2010, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 2015 to 2021, and has been vice chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee since 2021.
9.
Lisa Murkowski is often described as one of the Senate's most moderate Republicans, and a crucial swing vote.
10.
Lisa Murkowski was born in Ketchikan in the Territory of Alaska, the daughter of Nancy Rena and Frank Lisa Murkowski.
11.
Lisa Murkowski is a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and represented Alaska as the 1980 Cherry Blossom Princess.
12.
Lisa Murkowski received her JD degree in 1985 from Willamette University College of Law.
13.
Lisa Murkowski worked as an attorney in the Anchorage District Court Clerk's office from 1987 to 1989.
14.
Lisa Murkowski served on the Mayor's Task Force for the Homeless from 1990 to 1991.
15.
In 1998, Lisa Murkowski was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives.
16.
Lisa Murkowski was reelected in 2000 and, after her district boundaries changed, in 2002.
17.
That year she had a conservative primary opponent, Nancy Dahlstrom, who challenged her because Lisa Murkowski supported abortion rights and rejected conservative economics.
18.
Lisa Murkowski resigned her House seat before taking office, due to her appointment by her father to the seat he had vacated in the US Senate, upon his stepping down to assume the Alaska governorship.
19.
Lisa Murkowski sat on the Alaska Commission on Post Secondary Education and chaired both the Labor and Commerce and the Military and Veterans Affairs Committees.
20.
Lisa Murkowski ran for a full Senate term against former Governor Tony Knowles in the 2004 election after winning a primary challenge by a large margin.
21.
Lisa Murkowski was considered vulnerable due to the controversy over her appointment, and polling showed the race was very close.
22.
The centrist Republican Main Street Partnership, which wanted to run TV ads for Lisa Murkowski, was told no airtime was left to buy.
23.
Lisa Murkowski faced the most difficult election of her career in the August 24,2010, Republican Party primary election against Joe Miller, a former US magistrate judge supported by former Governor Sarah Palin.
24.
On September 17,2010, Lisa Murkowski said that she would mount a write-in campaign for the Senate seat.
25.
Lisa Murkowski's campaign was aided in large part by substantial monetary assistance from Native corporations and PACs, as well as state teachers' and firefighters' unions.
26.
On November 17,2010, the Associated Press reported that Lisa Murkowski had become only the second Senate candidate to win a write-in campaign, thereby retaining her seat.
27.
Lisa Murkowski emerged victorious after a two-week count of write-in ballots showed she had overtaken Miller.
28.
The Libertarian vice-presidential nominee, former Governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld, endorsed Lisa Murkowski, citing Miller's support for Trump and "devoted social conservative" views as incompatible with libertarianism.
29.
In 2017, Lisa Murkowski filed to run for a fourth term in 2022.
30.
Lisa Murkowski was one of seven Republican senators to vote on February 13,2021, to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.
31.
On October 7,2021, Lisa Murkowski voted with 10 other Republicans and all members of the Democratic caucus to break the filibuster of raising the debt ceiling.
32.
On February 5,2022, Lisa Murkowski joined Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson in condemning the Republican National Committee's censure of Representatives Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney for supporting and participating in the Select Committee of the US House that was tasked with investigating the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
33.
In July 2007, Lisa Murkowski said 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.
34.
In 2008, Lisa 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.