Can We Stop Pretending Lisa Murkowski Is a Moderate?

Last week, I wrote about how lawmakers at the state and federal levels need to stop chasing “the agenda” and start dealing with the real issues facing their communities. Georgia State Senator Max Burns (R-23) is a perfect example. Since taking office in January 2021, he’s led an ongoing crusade against libraries and schools. His latest effort, a bill introduced this past May, attempted to criminalize school and university librarians if minors accessed what he deemed “indecent material.” It failed, but not before making national headlines. A local radio station reported that Burns was trying to align Georgia’s policies with Trump’s. Instead of focusing on fabricated culture war issues, he should be addressing the deep poverty and lack of opportunity in his district.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski heads to the Senate Chamber to vote in January 2025. (Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Now let’s talk about Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who voted yes on the Senate version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—known to some as OBBBA or BBB. I’ll call it BBB from here on out, because frankly, every time I say its name, a child loses their school lunch.

Republican leadership carved out some Alaska-specific perks to secure Murkowski’s vote. These included doubling rural hospital funding from $25 billion to $50 billion, a higher tax deduction for whaling captains, and an exemption from the worst SNAP cuts for non-contiguous states like Alaska and Hawaii. These were framed as concessions to protect her state.

But rural hospital closures and food stamp dependency aren’t issues unique to Alaska and Hawaii. That’s a stretch. The whaling captain tax deduction? Fine, that one’s definitely unique. It applies to maybe 150 Eskimo whaling captains in Alaska. I’ll give them that.

So can I fault her for voting in her state’s best interests?

Not really.

But also yes.

And here’s why I think she might actually be worse than most of her Senate colleagues.

What bothers me isn’t that she negotiated for carve-outs. That’s her job. Any senator with leverage should fight for their state.

But Murkowski knows the broader damage this bill will do. She knows that her vote doesn’t stop the harm. It only delays it. Alaska might not feel the full weight of Medicaid cuts immediately, but they’re still coming. This bill doesn’t prevent the pain—it just spreads it out over time. Instead of bleeding out quickly like the rest of the country, Alaska will slowly unravel under the same policies.

Let’s be clear. The BBB still harms Alaska. The pain is just on a longer timeline.

And this is only one part of a 900-page monstrosity. The bill also guts the judiciary’s ability to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court, essentially defanging any remaining enforcement power the courts have. It hands billions of dollars to ICE to build more detention facilities—what I refuse to sanitize with names like “Alligator Alcatraz.” That framing makes it sound cartoonish, localized, and not what it truly is. These facilities are unconstitutional. They are cruel and unusual punishment. And yet, here we are.

Everyone should read the full text of the bill. It’s a roadmap for where we’re headed over the next decade.

So what’s Murkowski’s deal?

After the vote, she told CNN the process was “awful.” She criticized the rushed, late-night negotiations and said the bill wasn’t ready for primetime. She urged the House to revise it further.

If it wasn’t ready, why did she vote yes?

In another interview with Galen Drukee, she said she was open to caucusing with Democrats but claimed the Democrats were just as bad as Republicans. That excited some folks. I was one of them, at first.

But really? Democrats have plenty of flaws, but equating them with the Trump GOP’s open cruelty is a convenient excuse to avoid taking a stand. It’s an easy way to straddle the fence without having to choose a side.

Murkowski is a skilled politician. She lost her Republican primary but won her first election as a write-in candidate, a nearly impossible feat. Voters had to spell her last name correctly for their vote to count, and she still pulled it off. That’s impressive.

But what I see now is cowardice. She’s punting hard decisions to others so she doesn’t have to take the heat. She’s playing spectator while pretending to be a stateswoman. Murkowski wants to maintain the image of a moderate, but she’s still a Republican in a party that’s rapidly radicalizing.

The middle ground is disappearing. And Murkowski will eventually have to choose which side of history she wants to stand on.

At this point, it’s becoming pretty clear which way she’s leaning.

So let’s stop pretending she’s a moderate.

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