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Kelly Tshibaka, an Alaska Republican backed by former President Trump, is blaming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for her failure to oust centrist GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski this election cycle.
Tshibaka, a former Alaska state official, conceded the contest on Wednesday after the latest rounds of vote tabulations showed Murkowski winning. The race took weeks to call given Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, a process in which voters select their preferred candidates in order and the vote share is distributed to the top two after a process of elimination.
While Tsibaka blamed ranked-choice voting for her loss, calling the system frustrating and a “incumbent protection program,” she also said McConnell had some responsibility.
“It is regrettable that Sen. Mitch McConnell spent millions of dollars in this race on deceptive ads to secure what he wanted – a Senate minority that he can control, as opposed to a majority that he could not,” she said. “Donors’ money would have been better spent in other states to elect more Republicans that would have secured a majority in the Senate.”
ALASKA SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI WINS RE-ELECTION TO US SENATE OVER CHALLENGER KELLY TSHIBAKA
The Alaska contest was seen as a proxy battle between Sen. Mitch McConnell and former President Trump.
(Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Tshibaka said her loss to Murkowski was just “another victory for the Washington, D.C., insiders who rarely have our best interests at heart.”
WHAT IS RANKED CHOICE VOTING, THE NEW ELECTION PROCESS USED IN ALASKA?
The Alaska contest was seen by many as a proxy battle between McConnell and Trump. The former president sought to punish Murkowski for having voted to convict him after his impeachment for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
“It is regrettable that Sen. Mitch McConnell spent millions of dollars in this race on deceptive ads to secure what he wanted,” said Kelly Tshibaka.
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