Trump to rally in Alaska to boost Palin and Murkowski challenger

Former President Trump will travel to Alaska this weekend to stump for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s congressional bid and a GOP challenger to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

The rally is set for Saturday afternoon. Trump will rally for Palin, Governor Mike Dunleavy and Kelly Tshibaka, who is looking to oust Murkowski.

Earlier this month, Palin advanced in the special election to replace the late Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). She is among four candidates who will go on to a ranked-choice election on Aug. 16. 

Tshlibaka is facing off against Murkowski, the Alaska senator who has drawn Trump’s anger for voting to impeach him after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Kelly Tshibaka is the candidate who can beat Murkowski — and she will,” Trump wrote last year when he endorsed Tshibaka. “Murkowski has got to go!” 

Murkowski previously called Tshibaka a “rubber-stamp Republican.”

“I may be the last man standing. I may not be reelected,” the senator said. “It may be that Alaskans say, ‘Nope, we want to go with an absolute, down-the-line, always, always, 100-percent, never-question, rubber-stamp Republican.”

Murkowski and Tshibaka will compete in a “jungle primary” on August 16, with the top four candidates, irrespective of party, advancing to November’s general election.

The rally comes amid public hearings on the Jan. 6 riot, with the House select committee seeking to place Trump at the center of efforts to overturn President Biden’s election victory.

On Tuesday, Cassidy Hutchinson, formerly the executive assistant to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified at a public House Jan. 6 committee meeting about Trump’s behavior during the Capitol riot. 

She said under oath Trump knew members of the crowd at his rally had weapons when he told them to march to the Capitol, and that he lunged at a Secret Service agent to take the wheel of a car in an attempt to join the mob.

Trump has denied the allegations, and the Secret Service agents present at the time are reportedly willing to testify that some elements of Hutchinson’s testimony are false.