The Alaska Republican Party voted on Monday to censure Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for backing incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in the race against Trump-endorsed Republican Kelly Tshibaka.
The Alaska Republican Party censured Murkowski last year after she voted to convict Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial in the Senate after his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
In their censure resolution on Monday, the Alaska GOP said McConnell supporting Murkowski’s re-election bid is a “direct contradiction of the position of the Alaska Republican Party.”
The Alaska GOP said they “condemn the divide and misleading statements from the Senate Leadership Fund and inappropriate use of millions of dollars from the Senate Leadership Fund to oppose our endorsed candidate Kelly Tshibaka,” according to a copy of the resolution posted to Facebook.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that many of the ads being run by the Senate Leadership Fund suggest Tshibaka may have committed fraud and wasted taxpayer’s money as a member of the Alaska Department of Administration.
FactCheck.org also found that some ads are misleading including one that said Tshibaka wants to ban all birth control by mail.
“We request the Senate Leadership Fund immediately stop the attack ads against Kelly Tshibaka and discontinue the support of all other opposing candidates,” the resolution said.
Murkowski is locked in a close race with Tshibaka. A McConnell aligned super PAC has spent millions in ads attacking Tshibaka, who has called for McConnell to step down as the Senate Republican leader.
“The millions of dollars Mitch McConnell is spending on lies about me could be put to better use in other states where a Republican has a chance to beat a Democrat,” Tshibaka said on Monday. “And the Alaska Republican Party has just told him to butt out of our state.”
