NEW: GOP Senator Considers Switching Parties

One of the most vascillating members of the U.S. Senate Republican caucus confirmed she is giving serious consideration to leaving the party before the midterms.A precarious balance of power in the Senate leaves Republicans with just a three-seat majority. On several occasions, Vice President J.D. Vance has delivered the tie-breaking vote when a handful of moderates or Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a libertarian, have dissented.

The dynamic presents Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) with his greatest challenge yet: how to convince a member of the caucus facing her toughest reelection in years to stick it out with a party that has drifted further to the right than most of her positions in the age of President Donald Trump.

In a recent podcast interview, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) confirmed that she has “considered” enrolling as an independent, citing policy differences where she believes Democrats may have the better solution. Doing so would free her up to become an even more prized voice in a deliberative body where a single vote can mean the difference between sweeping legislation and indecision.

“I would be not being honest with you if I said I’ve never been asked … ‘Why don’t you switch?’ Or people have said, ‘You should switch,’” she told Semafor.

The admission comes as Murkowski prepares for the release of her new book, “Far from Home: An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, D.C.” She let slip that the thought of registering as a Democrat is not a new one.

Going on, Murkowski admitted that some planks in the current GOP platform have made her uneasy about her position within the party.

“Do I feel that within my Republican conference, I always feel like I’m right here in my political home? No. There’s some directions and policies that I disagree with,” she told Semafor while acknowledging that her overall worldview aligns “more closely” with the GOP.

WATCH:

Despite her misgivings about the state of the Republican Party, Democrats are faring much worse, Murkowski observed, pointing to Kamala Harris’s loss in all seven swing states last year.

“As challenged as I think we may be on the Republican side, I don’t see Democrats being much better,” she said, according to Conservative Brief.

“They’ve got not only their own share of problems but, quite honestly, they’ve got some policies that I just inherently disagree with.”

Murkowski famously lost her Republican primary in the 2010 Tea Party wave only to win the general election with a write-in campaign, an accomplishment that has gone unmatched in the modern era. She faces intense primary opposition ahead of her reelection in 2026.