Murkowski, Lisa Ann (1957-…), became a member of the United States Senate in 2002. Murkowski, a Republican, represents Alaska. Before joining the U.S. Senate, she was a member of the Alaska House of Representatives.
Murkowski was born on May 22, 1957, in Ketchikan, Alaska. She received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgetown University in 1980 and a law degree from Willamette College of Law in 1985. Murkowski served as a district attorney in Anchorage District Court from 1987 to 1989. She practiced law with a law firm in Anchorage from 1989 to 1996 and established her own private law practice in 1997.
Murkowski was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1998 and reelected in 2000 and 2002. She was known as a moderate Republican in the Alaska House, where she chaired the Labor and Commerce Committee. After her reelection in November 2002, Republicans in the House chose her to serve as majority leader. She resigned her House seat in December, however, after receiving an appointment to the U.S. Senate. Murkowski’s father, Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski, appointed her to the Senate to fill out the remainder of his Senate term, which extended to January 2005. He had resigned from his Senate seat after being elected governor of Alaska in November 2002 (see Murkowski, Frank Hughes).
In 2004, Lisa Murkowski won election to her first full Senate term. Seeking a second term in 2010, she lost the Republican primary race to lawyer Joe Miller. Murkowski then competed in the general election as a write-in candidate and won. She became the first write-in candidate to win a Senate seat since South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond in 1954. As a senator, Murkowski has gained a reputation as a moderate. She has served on the Senate committees on Appropriations; Energy and Natural Resources; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; and Indian Affairs. She was reelected in 2016 and 2022.
