Former President Donald Trump is wielding his tremendous influence over the Republican base by setting his sights on RINOs who he believes stand in the way of his Make America Great Again agenda.
Seven Senate Republicans supported the second impeachment against Trump, but only of those senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, is up for reelection next year. Trump has promised to travel to Alaska and personally campaign against the senator.
"I will not be endorsing, under any circumstances, the failed candidate from the great State of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski. She represents her state badly and her country even worse. I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be — in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad Senator," the former president said in a statement to The Hill. "Her vote to advance radical left democrat Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior is yet another example of Murkowski not standing up for Alaska."
Murkowski has been a perennial thorn in the side of the GOP for quite some time now, and Trump's promise to campaign against Murkowski in Alaska next year should worry the senator about her prospects.
Recent polling shows nearly half of Republicans said they were willing to leave the GOP to join a third-party created and led by the former president. Trump has categorically ruled out the possibility of a third party, but it shows the extent to which the former president still influences the base. Most concerning for the GOP, only 27 percent of Republicans said they would stick by the GOP if the former president did indeed create a third-party.
More concerning for Murkoswksi, the same poll shows Republicans aren't overlooking GOP lawmakers who supported the latest impeachment effort either. Eight in 10 Republicans said they are less likely to vote for a Republican politician who backed the second impeachment.