By SUZANNE DOWNING
March 30, 2026 – US Sen. Lisa Murkowski will address a joint session of the Alaska Legislature on Tuesday, bringing one of the state’s most controversial political figures to the House chamber at a moment of heightened national and state political tension.
The joint session means lawmakers will follow an altered weekly rhythm: the House and Senate will hold their normal floor sessions Monday and Wednesday, with both chambers convening together Tuesday to hear Murkowski’s remarks. Joint sessions are typically reserved for major addresses, visiting dignitaries, and members of Alaska’s congressional delegation.
Murkowski’s appearance comes just days after President Donald Trump publicly criticized her by name during a Fox News interview tied to Senate fights over the SAVE America Act, a voter identification and citizenship verification measure, and related Department of Homeland Security funding disputes. Trump called Murkowski “a very difficult person” and “a very terrible person,” after she joined Democrats in opposing a procedural vote to advance the legislation.
Murkowski’s role in the Senate is that of one of the farthest-left Republicans and nearly always in opposition to Donald Trump.
She first entered office in 2002, when her father, then-Gov. Frank Murkowski, appointed her to fill his US Senate seat after he was elected governor. At the time, she was serving as a state House member representing Anchorage since 1999. Murkowski has held the Senate seat ever since, surviving repeated challenges from both the right and the left.
Her most famous political comeback came in 2010, when she lost the Republican primary to Joe Miller but mounted a successful write-in campaign in the general election — an extraordinarily rare feat in modern US Senate politics.
That year Bernadette Wilson, now running for governor, was Miller’s campaign manager.
Since that, Murkowski has built winning coalitions that rely heavily on Alaska Native voters, Democrats, independents, and moderate Republicans, along with the advantages of statewide name recognition.
Following that election cycle, she and her surrogates reengineered Alaska elections. Before she came up for election again, Alaskans adopted a top-four primary and ranked-choice general election system, which removed traditional party primaries, a structure that helps her avoid a Republican electorate in the primary.
Call her many things, but politically naïve is not one of them. Murkowski has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to survive in Alaska’s political landscape by building coalitions that exclude Republican Party support. And on Tuesday, she will be addressing a Legislature that has been built, in part, by her ranked-choice voting: It’s run by Democrats and independents who are supported by the Alaska Democratic Party.
4 thoughts on “Murkowski to address Legislature on Tuesday”
Just another No Kings event. Good day for conservatives to go fishing or climb Mt. Jumbo.
Good day to walk out in the middle of her speech
Lisa Murkowski is a stupid woman. Raised as a Republican. Walks and jives with Democrats. Thinks all Alaskans love her. Married to a drone. Betrayed her mom and dad. Thinks she can be elected again (but only with RCV). Flunked the Bar Exam untold times. Almost 70yo, but looks 85. Get rid of her, Alaskans. She’s putrid.
I, for one, do not believe that Lisa actually won in 2010. The fact that her campaign people pushed so hard to implement RCV immediately after that election shows that they knew she would be primaried out again. 17 states have banned RCV. Alaska needs to do the same. Are you listening, tax-sniffing Alaska legislators? (3/30/26 1:19pm)