GOP Sen. Murkowski says she's 'not attached to' GOP label, but is 'still a Republican'

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, indicated that she’s not wedded to the Republican label, but noted that she has never abandoned it.

Murkowski, who made the remarks at a conference for the No Labels group, claimed that she’s “more of a Ronald Reagan … Republican than I am a Trump Republican. And … some would say, well you’re not really a Republican at all,” she noted. 

But the senator said “you can call me whatever you want … I’m not attached to a label. I’d rather be that no label.” 

Murkowski said she’d prefer being known as someone who seeks to “do right by this state and the people that I serve regardless of party.”

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“In fact, I think I am more comfortable with that identity,” she noted, than with an “identity … as a Republican, as a party person.”

But later during her remarks, Murkwoski noted that she’s never ditched her GOP label.

“I am still a Republican,” she said, noting, “I’ve never shed my party label.”

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaks during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Special Diabetes Program in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2023. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for JDRF)

President-elect Trump urged a crowd in Alaska in 2022 to “dump the horrific RINO senator Lisa Murkowski,” using the acronym that stands for “Republican in name only.” 

In late 2002, Frank Murkowski, who had just departed the U.S. Senate to serve as governor, appointed his daughter Lisa Murkowski to fill the Senate vacancy. 

She has since won election to the Senate multiple times, including in 2022 when she defeated Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka.

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, arrives for the Senate Republican leadership elections at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, on Nov. 13. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Earlier this year, Murkowski endorsed former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley during the GOP presidential primary.