Murkowski says she isn’t voting for Trump or Harris

ANGOON — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in an interview over the weekend that she will not vote for Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.

“I want to vote for somebody and not against someone,” said the Alaska Republican.

Murkowski has long been a critic of Trump. She has said that she didn’t vote for him in 2016 or 2020.

Prominent Republicans, including former Wyoming U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, have said they will vote for Harris, and warned democracy could be at stake if Trump is reelected.

But Murkowski, a Republican, stressed that she is “disappointed” with the choices for president from both major parties. She said that she would vote for another candidate for president.

“I am going to be voting for someone and hopefully I will feel good about that, even knowing that that individual probably is not going to be in the winner column,” she said.

Apart from Harris and Trump, there are six other presidential tickets on the Alaska ballot.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear as an independent. He dropped out in August and endorsed former President Donald Trump. But his campaign failed to have his name removed from the Alaska ballot.

That leaves five candidates on the ballot that Murkowski can choose from. She declined to say who she would support for president.

Murkowski spoke to the Daily News from Angoon while dressed in Tlingit regalia. She was there to witness the U.S. Navy deliver a formal apology for destroying Angoon in 1882.

She said presidential polling is “crazily close,” which she said reflects how divided the country is. She said that her hope is that the election is deemed fair and transparent across the U.S.

“My deepest fear is that the individual who does not come out on top objects, calls foul and creates yet another level of anxiety and exhaustion,” she said.

When pressed, Murkowski said that she had seen “certain signals” from Trump that he would question the election results if he didn’t win.

“Am I concerned that if Kamala Harris does not prevail, that she would contest it? She has not said anything to that effect. But remember, you have individuals that come behind these candidates who also can weigh in with their own level of disaffection,” she said.

Murkowski did not elaborate on “the individuals” she was referring to.

Trump has consistently claimed to have won the 2020 election, despite presenting no verifiable evidence that fraud could have changed the results. He sought to overturn the 2020 results, culminating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to block then-Vice President Mike Pence’s certification of the election.

Murkowski was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack, which she called “an insurrection.”

Congress passed a measure in 2022 that made the vice president‘s role purely ceremonial in certifying the results of a presidential election. The new rules also require a higher bar for representatives and senators to object to a state’s electors.

“I think that we’ve done a satisfactory job there, but it still causes me concern, because of what we lived through,” Murkowski said, while emphasizing that the people who tried to overturn the 2020 election had failed.

Four candidates are running for Alaska’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola is running against her main Republican challenger, businessman Nick Begich III.

Murkowski again reiterated her support on Saturday for Peltola. But she stopped short of endorsing her.

“I have let it be known that I think that she has represented us well, and I think she deserves to continue in that position,” she said.

Murkowski said she thinks of an endorsement as when she appears in an advertisement for a candidate. But she hasn’t done that for Peltola.

However, she has recently appeared in an ad calling on voters to reject the repeal of Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary system.

ADN photojournalist Marc Lester contributed reporting.