Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) trolled her Trump-backed Republican rival, Kelly Tshibaka, after she took the lead in first-choice votes in the Alaska Senate race.
The Alaska Senate race headed to a ranked choice runoff after no candidate in the contest received more than 50% of the vote.
Under ranked choice voting, voters ranked their candidates in order of preference. If no candidate received more than 50%, the candidate who received the least amount of votes is eliminated and their voters’ second choice apportioned between the candidates that are left. The process continues until a candidate reaches 50 percent.
As of Saturday morning, Murkowski leads Tshibaka by 0.6% or about 1,700 first-choice votes. Murkowski received 43.3% to Tshibaka’s 42.7%.
Murkowski responded to the news by trolling Tshibaka on Twitter with a GIF from the movie “The Usual Suspects.”
“And just like that … Kelly’s claim that she only lost because of Ranked Choice was gone,” the text overlaying the GIF read.
The counting of second-choice votes will begin Nov. 23 and Republican Buzz Kelley, who received less than 3 percent of the vote will be eliminated. Democrat Pat Chesbro, who received about 10 percent of first-choice votes, will be eliminated in the second round.
The remaining candidate who receives the larger share of Chesbro’s vote will likely win the contest. This is why Murkowski is expected to be re-elected because she is a moderate, and most of Chesbro’s democratic-leaning voters would likely choose her as their second choice over the Trump-backed Tshibaka.
