'Rare Republican senator with principles' wins praise for telling Trump to 'butt out'

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to stay out of her state’s Senate race. That earned her a rare round of applause from people who don’t usually cheer Republicans.

“Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot,” Murkowski wrote on X Friday. “The Department of Justice should never have filed this lawsuit.”

The DOJ suit, which Trump has said he ordered, asks a federal judge to block certification of the race if Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola. The department argues that voters may have confused the senator with Daniel J. Sullivan, another candidate on the ballot. Alaska lists the senator as “Incumbent” and the other Sullivan with no party label.

Murkowski’s post spread fast, and reporters quickly picked it up.

“Murkowski tells DOJ to butt out,” wrote Igor Bobic, a senior politics reporter at HuffPost. CNN anchor Erin Burnett also shared it: “And @lisamurkowski says no to Trump’s lawsuit. With context on the ballot.”

Democrats praised her for it.

“We have a rare Republican senator here with principles,” wrote Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot and Democratic Senate candidate in Kentucky.

Political scientist Alice Frost said the lawsuit looks like an act of desperation.

“Trump directing the DOJ to seek to block certification of a potential Republican defeat in Alaska appears to be a desperate ploy by a highly anti-democratic, authoritarian president to squeeze out a victory in a closely contested Senate race,” Frost wrote. “A Democratic Congress will likely hold him to account, and so he should have plenty to fear.”

Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said Alaska’s voting system undercuts the DOJ’s case.

“Because of Alaska’s ranked-choice voting, it is almost impossible for confusion to lead to his guy losing,” Baker wrote. He added that Trump’s staff is “too cowardly to explain that to him.”

Under ranked-choice voting, a voter unsure which Sullivan to back can rank both, an argument the Peltola campaign and Senate Democrats also made in their own filing Friday.

Murkowski has broken with Trump many times. She voted to convict him at his second impeachment trial. Sullivan, Alaska’s other senator, hasn’t publicly commented on the lawsuit.