(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Several RINO senators have threatened to leave the Republican Party and join the Democrats if the larger GOP base does not soon fall into line with their own opinions, The Hill reported.
Leading the charge is Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who condemned her voting base as “extremist” and unable to win respectability in the polite company of Washington, D.C.
“We should be concerned about this as Republicans,” claimed Murkowski, who narrowly won re-election last year after facing a challenge from pro-MAGA candidate Kelly Tshibaka.
Only by taking advantage of Alaska’s new—and controversial—ranked-choice voting was the liberal Murkoski able to weather the primary and general election matchups.
Facing six years until she will again be accountable to voters, Murkowski appeared to be banking on the fact that her constituents would have short memories.
“I’m having more ‘rational Republicans’ coming up to me and saying, ‘I just don’t know how long I can stay in this party,'” she said. “[O]ur party is becoming known as a group of kind of extremist, populist over-the-top [people] where no one is taking us seriously anymore.”
According to Murkowski, other GOP senators are likewise toying with the idea of going independent or switching sides.
“You have people who felt some allegiance to the party that are now really questioning, ‘Why am I [in the party?]” she noted.
Murkowski said the upcoming primary debates were likely to prove an inflection point for long-suffering NeverTrumpers like herself, who are no longer willing to let the former president and current GOP frontrunner speak on their behalf.
Other senators, who requested anonymity when speaking to The Hill, fretted that the populist movement of the party could cost Republicans in future elections.
The new direction of the Republican Party “makes it a lot more difficult to govern, it makes it difficult to talk to constituents,” one senator said.
“There are people who surprise me—I’m surprised they have those views,” he continued, slamming his constituents for believing that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
The anonymous lawmaker then seemed to lament that such beliefs had spread not just to deplorables who could be readily ignored, but also to potential donors, forcing him to humor them in public.
“It’s amazing to me the number of people, the kind of people who think the election was stolen,’ he said.
“I don’t want to use this word but it’s not just a ‘redneck’ thing,” he continued. “It’s people in business, the president of a bank, a doctor.”
Another anonymous senator accused fellow Republicans of being responsive to the voters on issues like immigration.
“In my state, there are a lot of folks who see Washington as disconnected—they see their way of life threatened,” the senator said. “There’s something that generates discontent that elected officials take advantage of.”
