Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska committed on Sunday to supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the state’s other GOP senator, should she decide to mount a reelection bid next year, giving the moderate lawmaker another ally as top party leaders pledge to oust her.
“If Sen. Murkowski runs again, I’m going to support her,” Sullivan told ABC News in an interview, noting that the two senators “don’t agree on everything, but we make a good team for Alaska.”
“When I ran in 2014 and beat a Democrat incumbent and we got the Senate majority back, Sen. Murkowski was a strong supporter of mine. And in 2016 I supported her. And just in my reelection in 2020, where, you know, the national Democratic Party came in big in Alaska, massive amount of money, Sen. Murkowski was a strong supporter of mine and we won that reelection very strongly,” he said.
Sullivan’s support of Murkowski could be key should she decide to run again next year, as she’s facing potentially crippling opposition from some members of her own party, including former President Donald Trump. The former President said earlier this month that he plans to campaign against her – a pledge that came after Murkowski joined six other GOP senators to vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.
“I will not be endorsing, under any circumstances, the failed candidate from the great State of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski,” Trump said in a statement first reported by Politico, adding: “She represents her state badly and her country even worse.”
The Alaska Republican Party has also distanced itself from the state’s senior senator, censuring her earlier this month in a resolution that also said the organization “will recruit a Republican primary challenger to oppose and prohibit” Murkowski from running again.
But Sullivan isn’t alone in his support for Murkowski, as the chamber’s top Republican, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, has committed that Senate Republicans will support Murkowski regardless of Trump’s actions.
CNN’s Jim Acosta and Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.
