The legendary Anchorage Republican Women’s Club, one of the pillars of Republicanism in Alaska, is the third subdivision of the Alaska Republican Party to condemn the actions of Sen. Mitch McConnell and his Senate Leadership Fund for its attacks on Republican Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka.
Tshibaka has been overwhelmingly endorsed by the Alaska Republican Party. In a vote taken in 2021, the party separately asked Sen. Lisa Murkowski to leave the party and not run under the Republican banner. She did not comply and is running as a Republican. A couple of months later, the party endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, who announced her run for Senate in March of 2021, shortly after the party had voted to look for another candidate to represent Republican values, since Murkowski refused to do so.
McConnell, however, opposed the Alaska Republican Party and is endorsing Murkowski. He is spending about $7 million in Republican donor money to attack Tshibaka in his attempt to preserve Murkowski in the Senate.
“As soon as these polls came out Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund was flooding our state with millions of dollars in a smear campaign against me,” Tshibaka said.
The Anchorage Republican Women’s Club joins District 6 and District 9 Republican committees in issuing a swift rebuke to McConnell and the Senate Leadership Fund.
Anchorage had two Republican women’s clubs. But the Midnight Sun Republican Women’s Club, which had been formed up to align with with Murkowski, has been somewhat dormant in recent months. The AWRC, however, is led by its longtime President Judy Eledge, with Vice President Portia Erickson, Treasurer Gillian Dezzutto, Secretary Susan Fischetti, and Assistant Treasurers Lindsay Williams and Carolyn Leman. The club is known for its ability to raise money and support candidates, and is a sought-after endorsement for any Republican in the state.
The resolution from the Anchorage women list, like the other two resolutions, a series of “Whereas” statements, such as the fact that Murkowski is not representing Republican values and that McConnell’s attacks on Tshibaka are libelous. The resolution asks McConnell to cease his actions that opposed Republicans in Alaska.
The news of a growing movement in Alaska to rebuke McConnell has made national media outlets, especially after District 9 Republicans, who are in Tshibaka’s home district, called on the Republican Party of Kentucky to take action against the senator for breaking the rules of the Kentucky GOP.
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