Lisa Ann Murkowski (/mərˈkaʊski/ mər-KOW-skee; born May 22, 1957) is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Alaska, having held the seat since 2002.

Murkowski became the first Alaskan-born member of Congress and completed her father's unexpired Senate term, which ended in January 2005.

She is a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority[3] and represented Alaska as the 1980 Cherry Blossom Princess.

[12] Murkowski sat on the Alaska Commission on Post Secondary Education and chaired both the Labor and Commerce and the Military and Veterans Affairs Committees.

After she resigned to join the U.S. Senate, her father appointed Dahlstrom, the District Republican committee's choice, as her replacement.

[16] 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.

The centrist Republican Main Street Partnership, which wanted to run TV ads for Murkowski, was told no airtime was left to buy.

Murkowski faced a challenge from Joe Miller, a former U.S. magistrate judge supported by former Governor Sarah Palin,[18][19] in the August 24, 2010, Republican Party primary election.

[24] On August 29, 2010, the state Libertarian Party executive board voted not to consider Murkowski as its Senate nominee.

[26] Her campaign was aided in large part by substantial funding from state teachers' and firefighters' unions and Native corporations and PACs.

[27] On November 17, 2010, the Associated Press reported that Murkowski had become only the second Senate candidate (after Strom Thurmond in 1954) to win a write-in campaign.

[31] U.S. Federal District Judge Ralph Beistline granted an injunction to stop the certification of the election due to "serious" legal issues and irregularities Miller raised about the hand count of absentee ballots.

[37] Due to her opposition to some of his initiatives, former President Donald Trump pledged in June 2020 to support a Republican challenger to Murkowski, saying: "Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don't care.

[40] During her 2022 campaign, Murkowski was supported by Democratic colleagues, including Jeanne Shaheen, and Independent Senator Angus King.

[41] On June 18, 2021, Trump endorsed former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner Kelly Tshibaka for the Senate in 2022, calling her "MAGA all the way".

[61] On April 7, 2022, she voted to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, with only two other Republicans, Collins and Mitt Romney, joining her.

[62] In a March 2019 op-ed for The Washington Post, Murkowski and Joe Manchin wrote that climate change debate in Congress was depicted as "an issue with just two sides—those who support drastic, unattainable measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and those who want to do nothing", and affirmed their support for "adopting reasonable policies that...build on and accelerate current efforts [and] ensure a robust innovation ecosystem.

[64] In December 2020, during his lame-duck period, Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.

[65] The veto left new Coast Guard cutters that were scheduled to be homeported in Alaska without port facilities to maintain them.

[67] On May 27, along with five other Republicans and all present Democrats, Murkowski voted to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol attack.

[69] On September 30, 2021, she was among the 15 Senate Republicans to vote with all Democrats and both Independents for a temporary spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.

[74] On February 5, 2022, 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 U.S. House that was tasked with investigating the January 6 United States Capitol attack.

[77] As of 2023, Murkowski supports ConocoPhillips's controversial Willow oil drilling project on North Slope Borough, Alaska.

[103] Her sister, Carol, is married to the son of State Senator Arliss Sturgulewski, a former gubernatorial nominee.

[105] The Anchorage Daily News wrote, "The transaction amounted to an illegal gift worth between $70,000 and $170,000, depending on how the property was valued, according to the complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center.

"[105] According to the Associated Press, Murkowski bought the land from two developers tied to the Ted Stevens probe.