Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has long been a thorn in the side of MAGA Republicans. She’s positioned herself as the kind of centrist who claims independence while consistently standing in the way of the conservative agenda. For years, her carefully assembled coalition of moderate Republicans and left-leaning Democrats helped her cling to her Senate seat, aided in no small part by Alaska’s ridiculous ranked-choice voting system. Well, there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
According to a new report, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is quietly—but deliberately—setting the stage for a 2028 Senate run. Multiple sources confirm that he intends to challenge Murkowski once his term as governor concludes.
"He’s not going to quit his term," a top source close to Dunleavy who used to work with him in Juneau, Alaska, told Fox News Digital of the governor’s long-term plans. The next Senate race in the Last Frontier falls in 2026 for incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan.
The last governor to resign to run for higher office — 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin — "never recovered," the source said.
Dunleavy "cares deeply about and wants Alaska to succeed," the source said, adding the governor recently quipped that he can’t understand why people would want to "live with all this concrete" in Washington and not in the verdant Arctic as one reason the Pennsylvania-born Republican likes to otherwise avoid the East Coast.
Murkowski, meanwhile, looks increasingly cornered. Alaska Democrats once saw her as a tolerable centrist, but their party has veered left, leaving little room for someone with Murkowski’s record. Republicans, on the other hand, never fully trusted her in the first place. Her many high-profile breaks with Donald Trump, culminating in votes that infuriated the base, cemented her as a politician without a real home. That growing isolation has fueled speculation about whether she might attempt another reinvention by running as an independent. But her recent votes aren’t going to win back Democrats, and conservatives have already written her off. Instead of broadening her base, Murkowski may now discover that she’s alienated everyone.
ICYMI: The NYT Just Nuked the Left's Narrative About the Bolton Raid
The timing for a challenge could not be more favorable. Political observers are increasingly blunt: this may be the Alaska GOP’s golden opportunity to finally move past Lisa Murkowski, provided Republicans avoid the circular firing squads that so often define intraparty battles. The state’s Democrats are no longer interested in bolstering her, the Republican grassroots are eager for change, and Mike Dunleavy is far better positioned than challengers of the past. For years, pundits dismissed the idea of unseating Murkowski as little more than wishcasting. But today, her defeat looks like a very real possibility—even if we’re talking about a few years away.
Dunleavy’s profile offers exactly what conservatives have been waiting for: a pragmatic, results-oriented executive with a proven record of loyalty to Trump and a disdain for empty theatrics. Friends describe him as reserved, uninterested in vanity projects, and focused squarely on results. This isn’t a man at ease in the cocktail circuits of Washington, D.C., but one who views a Senate seat as leverage for Alaska—and by extension, for the conservative movement. He endorsed Trump early in 2016, becoming just the second sitting governor to do so, and his relationship with Trump has been unusually close. Trump himself has urged Dunleavy to consider a Senate campaign.
If Dunleavy follows through, Murkowski’s days as Alaska’s great political survivor may finally be numbered. The coalition that once sustained her has crumbled, and the MAGA base she repeatedly scorned is hungry for a champion who actually shares their values. For conservatives who’ve waited years to see Murkowski replaced, the prospect is no longer a fantasy—it’s within reach.
