In a sign that state Republican parties might be coming to the realization that supporting inveterate losers like Martha McSally and various quislings in their primary contests, the Alaska GOP has announced that it will be actively supporting Lisa Murkowski’s challenger, Kelly Tshibaka.

The Alaska Republican State Central Committee on Saturday endorsed Kelly Tshibaka in the 2022 race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Lisa Murkowski.

The committee approved Tshibaka’s endorsement in a 58-17 vote during a meeting in Fairbanks.

In a statement, Tshibaka said she will uphold conservative ideals and be a senator who Alaskans “can depend to make every decision based on what is best for our great state.”

Tshibaka announced on March 29 that she would run for the Senate seat held by Murkowski, who has been in office since 2002 and is widely viewed as a moderate. Two weeks earlier, the Republican State Central Committee voted 53-17 to censure Murkowski, citing her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump and other votes that have broken with GOP leadership. Alaska Republican Party leaders said at the time that they would recruit someone to run against her.

Murkowski said in a statement to the Daily News that she has fought for Alaskan values in the U.S. Senate and will continue to do so.

She has not yet filed for re-election, a spokesperson for Murkowski said.

On paper, Tshibaka looks like a solid candidate. She is married, a mother, a Harvard Law grad. She has worked in the IG offices at Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, she was the Chief Data Officer of the Postal Service IG and she served as Alaska’s Commissioner of Administration until from 2019 until her resignation in March of this year to pursue a Senate run.

This is how the media is framing the action:

Why it matters: It’s another sign of division in the GOP between supporters of former President Trump and those who’ve publicly criticized him. Several senators have been censured in their home states for voting to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial earlier this year — including Murkowski.

There is some superficial truth in this statement. But let’s not forget that Murkowski isn’t terribly popular in Alaska:

A majority (59%) of Alaskan voters view Lisa Murkowski unfavorably while just 26% hold a favorable opinion of her.

Dem: 48% favorable – 20% neutral – 32% unfavorable
Rep: 6% – 8% – 84%
Ind: 32% – 14% – 52%

By contrast, 85% of Republicans view former President Trump favorably. pic.twitter.com/Qca6a4h9nT

— Change Research (@ChangePolls) June 8, 2021

And there is much, much more to the dislike of this crone than her voting with Democrats and refusing to support a popular president of her own party.

We shouldn’t count her out just yet. Murkowski has beaten the Grim Reaper once before, in 2010 she lost a primary challenge but won the general election by an unholy alliance of the GOPe, Democrats, and the Alaskan Native progressive mafia aiding her write-in campaign.

And, of course, Tshibaka is being portrayed as an extremist because that’s really all these clowns have.

When Tshibaka was at Harvard Law School, she wrote “The Right Side: Coming Out of Homosexuality,” for The Harvard Law Record, an independent newspaper at the law school, in December 2001.

“Today is National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day, a day dedicated to helping homosexuals overcome their sexual tendencies and move towards a healthy lifestyle,” she wrote in the article under her maiden name Kelly Hartline.

In the article she touts the work of Exodus International, a group that advocated gay conversion therapy. The group a decade later closed and apologized for the harm it did to the gay community.

“Homosexuals can come out of homosexuality because their preference is not biologically mandated.” Tshibaka wrote in 2001. “Unlike race or gender, homosexuality is a choice.”

She also later apologized to readers who were upset over the article, saying she did not intend to offend.

Tshibaka said she was assigned the article by an editor as a counterpoint piece. “I don’t hold that view today,” she told the AP.

When asked if same-sex marriage is settled law, she said: “I personally believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, but the Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is the law of the land.”

think it is time we look back to Barry Goldwater for some perspective:

“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”

While it is too soon to tell, I think the curtain may be coming down on Murkowski’s era of sucking up to Democrats for fun and profit. She hasn’t filed to run and she might want to leave office under her own steam rather than being run out of town on a rail. If you tie this with what is happening with Liz Cheney, we may, in fact, be on the leading edge of a purifying fire sweeping through the GOP and retiring establishment types who’ve been happy to stand by and let our nation be stolen while they took no risks nor action to prevent it.