Murkowski: ‘I’m not attached to’ Republican label

Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday she felt “more comfortable” with no party label than with “an identity as a Republican,” an escalation of the Alaska senator’s occasional bucking of her party as the chamber readies itself for a slew of confirmation battles over Trump administration nominees.

“I’m not attached to a label, I’d rather be that ‘no label.’ I’d rather be that person that is just known for trying to do right by the state and the people that I serve, regardless of party, and I’m totally good and comfortable with that,” Murkowski said during a discussion hosted by the centrist group No Labels at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Later on during the discussion, Murkowski clarified that she is “still a Republican” and has “never shed my party label.”

“We’ve got a system in the Senate where there are two sides of the aisle, and I have to sit on one side or I have to sit on the other,” she added.

Murkowski, who has served as a Republican senator from Alaska since 2003, has occasionally defied her party and criticized its members’ willingness to kowtow to President-elect Donald Trump.

“I don’t think I’ve made any secret of the fact that I’m more of a Ronald Reagan Republican than I am a Trump Republican,” she said Thursday. “And someone said, ‘Well, you aren’t really a Republican at all.’ And I said, ‘You can call me whatever you want to call me.’”

Murkowski is seen as one of Democrats’ top hopes to block Trump’s most contentious Cabinet picks, alongside fellow centrist Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

On Thursday, Murkowski predicted “it’s going to be hard in these next four years” because the Trump administration’s “approach is going to be: Everybody tow the line. Everybody line up. We got you here, and if you want to survive, you better be good. Don’t get on Santa’s naughty list here, because we will primary you.”

She pointed specifically to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), whose swing vote could sink Pete Hegseth’s bid to run the Pentagon.

Despite being “one of the more conservative, principled Republican leaders in the Senate right now,” Murkowski said, Republicans are slamming Ernst “for not being good enough” — and she said she is worried the Iowa senator could be primaried.