New Alaska voting rules explain Murkowski 'yes' vote for Biden Supreme Court pick

Up for reelection this year in a red state and facing formidable competition for renomination by a candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has no business voting to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

But that is what Alaska has wrought with a new system for electing candidates to state and federal office that eliminated closed-party primaries and head-to-head general elections featuring Democratic nominees in favor of all-party primaries and four-candidate general elections decided by ranked-choice voting.

So, rather than Murkowski having to guard her Right flank against Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka, in a state that delivered 53% of its vote to Trump in 2020, she can prosecute a general election strategy from the outset to capitalize on strong bipartisan support cultivated in Alaska over 20 years.

In announcing support for President Joe Biden’s nominee to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Murkowski conceded she has not “and will not agree with all of Judge Jackson’s decisions and opinions.” But tellingly, the senator framed her confirmation vote as “my rejection of the corrosive politicization of the review process for Supreme Court nominees, which ... on both sides of the aisle, is growing worse and more detached from reality by the year.”