Lisa Murkowski

Lisa Murkowski
Official portrait, 2017
Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2025
Preceded by	Brian Schatz
Vice Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee
In office February 3, 2021 – January 3, 2025
Preceded by	Tom Udall
Succeeded by	Brian Schatz
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Byron Dorgan
Succeeded by	John Barrasso
Chair of the Senate Energy Committee
In office January 3, 2015 – February 3, 2021
Preceded by	Mary Landrieu
Succeeded by	Joe Manchin
Ranking Member of the Senate Energy Committee
In office January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2015
Preceded by	Pete Domenici
Succeeded by	Maria Cantwell
Vice Chair of the Senate Republican Conference
In office June 17, 2009 – September 17, 2010
Leader	Mitch McConnell
Preceded by	John Thune
Succeeded by	John Barrasso
United States Senator from Alaska
Incumbent
Assumed office December 20, 2002 Serving with Dan Sullivan
Preceded by	Frank Murkowski
Member of the Alaska House of Representatives from the 14th district
In office January 19, 1999 – December 20, 2002
Preceded by	Terry Martin
Succeeded by	Vic Kohring
Personal details
Born	Lisa Ann Murkowski (1957-05-22) May 22, 1957 (age 67) Ketchikan, Alaska Territory, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Verne Martell ​ (m. 1987)​
Children	2
Relatives	Frank Murkowski (father)
Education	Georgetown University (BA) Willamette University (JD)
Signature
Website	Senate website
Murkowski's voice Murkowski supporting the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Recorded August 1, 2021

Lisa Ann Murkowski (/mərˈkaʊski/ mər-KOW-skee; born May 22, 1957) is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Alaska, having held the seat since 2002. She is the first woman to represent Alaska in the Senate and is the Senate's second-most senior Republican woman. Murkowski became dean of Alaska's congressional delegation upon Representative Don Young's death.

Murkowski is the daughter of former U.S. senator and governor of Alaska Frank Murkowski. She was appointed to the Senate by her father, who resigned his seat in December 2002 to become Alaska's governor. Murkowski became the first Alaskan-born member of Congress and completed her father's unexpired Senate term, which ended in January 2005. Before her appointment to the Senate, she had been a member of the Alaska House of Representatives since 1999. Murkowski ran for and won a full term in 2004 with 48% of the vote. After losing the 2010 Republican primary to Tea Party candidate Joe Miller, she ran as a write-in candidate and defeated both Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams in the general election. Murkowski was reelected in 2016 and again in 2022. She was vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference from 2009 to 2010 and chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 2015 to 2021. She has served as vice chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee since 2021.

Murkowski is often described as one of the Senate's most moderate Republicans and a swing vote. According to CQ Roll Call, she voted with President Barack Obama's position 72.3% of the time in 2013; she was one of only two Republicans to vote with Obama over 70% of the time. She opposed Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination in 2018 and supported Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination in 2022. In 2021, she was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial; the Alaska Republican Party censured her for that vote.