OPINION: It’s time for a change in the US Senate

Although Sen. Lisa Murkowski wishes it were not so, an election is the people’s performance review of the incumbent representing them. In her case, Murkowski has grown increasingly liberal over the past 21 years. She has become so much a part of the Washington, D.C., establishment that Alaskans can barely recognize her as the senator whose father appointed her to this seat two decades ago.

This year, we can choose a new direction and elect a senator who will stand with Alaska, our families who are being crushed, and our workers who are suffering. Or we can choose a senator who has been standing with Joe Biden, confirming his radical environmentalist nominees, and funding her own campaign nearly entirely with Lower 48 dark money.

Since Biden became president, Murkowski has been enabling his radical agenda every step of the way, even when it directly harmed Alaska. She cast a tiebreaking vote to advance the nomination of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, even though she knew Haaland was an environmental extremist who would wage war on Alaska workers, resource industries and economy. Murkowski has voted for more than 90% of Biden’s senior administration nominees.

Murkowski also voted to confirm police critic and activist Vanita Gupta, now the Department of Justice official in charge of local law enforcement grants. Alaska’s rural law enforcement grants have dropped from 20 recipients down to six. During the Obama administration, Murkowski also championed the confirmation of the federal judge who killed the Willow oil and natural gas project and the lifesaving King Cove road. These votes were clearly contrary to Alaska’s interests.

Murkowski says one thing in Alaska, while doing exactly the opposite in D.C. For instance, she ran ads claiming she supported the Second Amendment and warned that Biden “WANTS TO TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY” in all capital letters. Meanwhile, she voted for Biden-supported gun control and red flag laws.

Similarly, Murkowski promised big money from the “infrastructure bill” she wrote, but will likely never deliver new roads, bridges or much infrastructure to Alaska, because as Sen. Sullivan acknowledged, the Biden administration is blocking infrastructure development with insurmountable regulations. In fact, Murkowski admitted this when she co-sponsored Sullivan’s bill to fix the problem.

What did we get from the infrastructure bill? More inflation.

Murkowski recently announced that she is pulling for Nancy Pelosi in Alaska’s House race by pledging support to the only candidate who would support Speaker Pelosi’s radical, leftist agenda. And Murkowski has been the beneficiary of millions of dollars in dark money ads full of lies about me, paid for by Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, who knows he can control Murkowski’s vote if she’s reelected.

Murkowski has donned the Washington, D.C., establishment jersey of Biden, Pelosi and McConnell, while leaving Alaska with no goalie in net.

If she’s reelected, she’s not in line for the chairmanship of any major committee, and we lost the chairmanship of the Energy committee two years ago. Why are Alaskans still paying the highest prices for energy if we had the chairmanship for six years? Why don’t we have any active major energy projects?

Why don’t we yet have the millions of acres locked up by the Bureau of Land Management or promised to us by the federal government at statehood?

Why haven’t federal agencies been held accountable for blowing through their permitting deadlines by years, dearly costing our companies and workers?

Clearly, it’s time for a change. When I’m in the Senate, I will fight to protect jobs and the families and workers who depend on them. My parents were able to pull themselves into the middle class thanks to a job in the oil industry, and I understand what these opportunities mean for our future and our children.

I will only support constitutionalist nominees who will protect our rights and resource development. And I’m proud to have the NRA’s highest rating.

I will advocate for more access to mental health resources and affordable housing across the state, and I will support parents’ rights to be involved in their children’s education.

When I’m the next senator from Alaska, I will be a voice for the Alaskans who have felt forgotten and ignored — not Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell or Lower 48 dark money. I won’t be bought or bullied by Washington, D.C.; I will fight for Alaska, and that will never change.

Kelly Tshibaka is a born-and-raised Alaskan and a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Alaska who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump and the Alaska Republican Party.

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