Poll: Alaska Senator Murkowski losing ground to 2022 GOP challenger, poll

Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski is trailing a Republican challenging for her Senate by 15 points, according to a new poll.

Kelly Tshibaka, Alaska's former commissioner of administration, leads the two-term senator  34-to-19 percent, the poll released Monday by pollsters Cygnal, which fivethirtyeight.com gives a B-plus rating.

Murkowski only has a 10% favorability rating among Alaska Republicans, while 87 percent have a negative view of her.

Among voters from both major parties, Murkowski is seen favorably by 33% of respondents and unfavorably by 63 percent.

Tshibaka entered the race on March 29 and, among the GOP, is viewed favorably by 61 percent of such voters, according to the poll.

Independent Al Gross, who previously ran as the Democratic nominee for Senate in 2020, has an 18 percent chance of winning, according to the poll.

Alaska no longer has a party primary, after recently enacted voting laws. So the top three finishers in the summer's 2022 primary will advance to the November general election. 

Tshibaka worked for the federal government for nearly 17 years under the three previous administrations, according to the Washington Examiner. She worked for the U.S. Postal Service's Office of the Inspector General, National Intelligence, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.

The incumbent has not been popular with grassroots conservatives and the Republican base since she was appointed by her father to his Senate seat after he resigned in 2002 to become governor.

She has drawn increased criticisms recently after she being one of seven Republicans to voted to convict Trump at the second Senate impeachment trial.

Despite winning three elections, Murkowski never won a majority of the vote. She lost the Republican primary in 2010 but won the general after a successful write-in campaign for the Senate seat.

The poll was conducted in late March through live calls, text messages, and emails among 500 likely primary Alaska voters and has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence interval.