Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for Alaska governor on Tuesday, handing the former Sitka state lawmaker a high-profile boost in a four-way race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Murkowski’s endorsement arrived via a news release from the Kreiss-Tomkins campaign and praised his commitment to working across the aisle. “Our future is too important to be hamstrung by partisan divisions,” Murkowski said. “Jonathan understands that governing requires listening to people with different perspectives and finding common ground to solve the problems all of us face.” Very touching. Someone alert the Alaska GOP.
Kreiss-Tomkins has built his whole campaign around the bipartisan pitch, Alaska governor’s race endorsement, pledging to fill his cabinet with Republicans and independents alongside Democrats. He represented a relatively conservative state House district for a decade, so he’s not exactly a fire-breathing leftist, which apparently makes him acceptable to a growing number of Republicans up there.
Murkowski is no stranger to this kind of thing. She endorsed Democrat Mary Peltola in 2024 during Peltola’s successful U.S. House reelection campaign, and she’s made a small hobby out of crossing party lines whenever the mood strikes. She did endorse Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan this year in his reelection bid, so at least she’s batting .500 for the home team.
She’s also got company on the crossover train. A bunch of former Republican state legislators have already backed Kreiss-Tomkins. So has Murkowski’s own father, former Gov. Frank Murkowski, who co-wrote an Anchorage Daily News op-ed with two other former governors, independent Bill Walker and Democrat Tony Knowles, endorsing Kreiss-Tomkins. A family that crosses the aisle together, apparently.
Current polls show Kreiss-Tomkins leading a field of three Republicans in the race. “I’m honored to have Senator Murkowski’s support,” Kreiss-Tomkins said in the news release. “Alaskans deserve a government that can work through disagreements and make progress on the issues that matter.” Sure, but Alaskans also deserve a government led by someone who ran as a Republican.
The race now heads toward November with Kreiss-Tomkins holding a polling lead and what amounts to a small Republican fan club. Whether Alaska voters follow Murkowski’s lead or stick with the GOP field will settle things soon enough. If they do, Democrats will have won the governor’s mansion with a coalition that includes more Republicans than some Republican campaigns can say.
