2022 United States Senate election in Alaska

The 2022 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 8, 2022. Incumbent senator Lisa Murkowski won reelection to a fourth full term, defeating fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka and Democrat Patricia Chesbro.

After the voter approval of Ballot Measure 2 during the 2020 Alaska elections, this was the first U.S. Senate election in Alaska to be held under a new election process. All candidates ran in a nonpartisan blanket top-four primary on August 16, 2022, and the top four candidates advanced to the general election, where voters will utilize ranked-choice voting.

Murkowski was appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Frank Murkowski, who served as a U.S. senator from Alaska from 1981 until he was elected governor of Alaska. Murkowski has won three Senate elections since then, including a notable write-in campaign in the 2010 election, although she has never won an election with an outright majority of the vote.

Murkowski was the only Republican senator running for reelection in 2022 who voted to convict former president Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial in 2021. On March 16, 2021, the Alaska Republican Party voted to censure Murkowski and announced that it would recruit a Republican challenger in the 2022 election cycle. Following Murkowski's opposition to some of Trump's initiatives and her vote to convict him, Trump endorsed Tshibaka and campaigned against Murkowski. The Alaska Republican Party endorsed Tshibaka; Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee supported Murkowski.

In addition to Murkowski and Tshibaka, Democrat Pat Chesbro and Republican Buzz Kelley also advanced to the general election. On September 13, Kelley suspended his campaign and endorsed Tshibaka but remained on the ballot. Murkowski received a plurality of first-place votes, but because no candidate received a majority of the votes in the first round, the instant runoff was triggered. Murkowski won reelection in the third and final round, winning most of the second-choice votes from Chesbro's voters. Since Murkowski won her three previous elections to the U.S. Senate (2004, 2010, and 2016) without a majority of the vote, this election became the fourth election in which she did not receive a majority of the vote in the first round (the other three elections did not employ ranked choice voting with multiple rounds). Murkowski thus holds the record for the most number of elections won by a U.S. Senator without winning a majority of the votes.

Advanced to general

 * Lisa Murkowski, incumbent U.S. senator
 * Kelly Tshibaka, former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration

Withdrew after advancing to general

 * Buzz Kelley, retired mechanic (remained on ballot; endorsed Tshibaka)

Eliminated in primary

 * Sam Merrill, businessman
 * Pat Nolin, mechanic
 * John Schiess, perennial candidate
 * Kendall L. Shorkey
 * Karl Speights, retired U.S. Air Force officer and advisor to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign

Disqualified

 * Sam Little, musician, truck driver, National Guard veteran and candidate for governor of Alaska in 2010

Declined

 * Mike Dunleavy, governor of Alaska (ran for re-election)
 * Bob Lochner, mechanic and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2016
 * Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and nominee for vice president of the United States in 2008 (ran for U.S. House)

Advanced to general

 * Pat Chesbro, teacher

Eliminated in primary

 * Edgar Blatchford, professor, former mayor of Seward, and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2016 and 2020
 * Ivan R. Taylor

Withdrew

 * Elvi Gray-Jackson, state senator for District I and former Anchorage Assembly member (ran for re-election)

Eliminated in primary

 * Sean Thorne, veteran

Eliminated in primary

 * Dustin Darden, city maintenance worker and perennial candidate
 * Joe Stephens

Declined

 * John Howe, machinist and nominee for U.S. Senate in 2020 (ran for governor)

Eliminated in primary

 * Dave Darden, perennial candidate
 * Shoshana Gungurstein, businesswoman
 * Sid Hill, political gadfly and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2014
 * Jeremy Keller, television personality
 * Huhnkie Lee, attorney, army veteran and Republican candidate for Alaska Senate in 2020

Declined

 * Al Gross, orthopedic surgeon, commercial fisherman, son of former Alaska Attorney General Avrum Gross, and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2020 (ran for U.S. House)

Polling
Lisa Murkowski vs. Kelly Tshibaka