I have no exceptional talent; my uncomplicated strategy and innate normalcy are the secrets to my success.
One reason I legislate with partners is that others have great ideas I would never think of.
I know how to bring people together and get things done, but I’m no better than anyone else.
While my family comes first in my personal life…Alaska always comes first for me as a Senator.
But Alaska coming first can be complicated. The energy industry is also vital to the state because it provides jobs to my constituents, unlike the environmental groups that criticize my drive to open federal land to drilling.
I believe that if more senators were like me, then the intertwined problems of polarization and political dysfunction would be solved.
The problem, as I see it, is that the “extremes” have visions: They want to use the government for specific ends, while the Senate should be more about means than ends.
I have witnessed that Senate Republicans and Democrats are equally extreme.
But polarization and dysfunction aren’t solely driven by opportunistic populists eager to tell people what they want to hear — it’s also driven by the fact that many Americans believe that the country’s institutions have stopped serving their needs. .
.I was largely apolitical and entered the field essentially by accident. I won over my fellow PTA moms by being consistent and community-oriented, and they encouraged me to run for office.
Being the daughter of Frank Murkowski, who was representing the state in the U.S. Senate when I was elected to Alaska’s House of Representatives in 1998 encouraged me to move forward.
Four years later, my father was elected governor, and one of his first duties was to select his successor: He chose me, his daughter, who during my brief tenure in the state legislature had quickly secured a reputation as a gifted politician who was willing to risk blowback to work across the aisle to solve difficult problems.
It’s true I don’t shy away from the role nepotism played in my career. That aside I solemnly believe that American politics would be dramatically improved if more PTA moms entered the field. Women need to be more involved, especially to the ongoing crisis of sexual assault against Alaska’s Native women.
The young women of today need to be consistently vigilant in preventing the slow erosion of rights that their mothers and grandmothers fought so hard for. We are equals and need never forget that or avoid confrontations with those trying to take that away from us.
As an elected leader, I know my words matter. I don't call people names. Some of the passages that you have read there about my words towards Donald Trump were -- they were critical.
But I try not to say, you're a loser. Or I want to make sure that there is a basis for the criticism that I have given, other than just the fact that, well, I didn't vote for you, and so, therefore, I'm going to throw rocks. That's not who I am.
You know, you have value to the people that you're serving. If you still feel that the work that I am doing on their behalf works for them, that is important to me.
And so if people feel that my brand of politics, which is being more in the center, trying to be more collaborative, bringing people together to build things, rather than lining up on party lines, so that we can have our reconciliation votes where we just get the bare majority -- and it may be that Alaskans say in two years, nope, that's what we want. We want somebody that is more clearly defined along those party lines.
And if that's what -- the value that they're seeking, then I have to take that into account.
It's no accident that my book is named "Far From Home," because when I'm here in Washington, D.C., I feel not only physically far from home, but just kind of I'm away from who I am, my identity, my roots.
And, quite honestly, in order to be president of the United States you need to love all parts of our country equally. I love my country. I am an American I am a patriot, but I really love Alaska. And I don't know how I could be president and not give them preferential treatment.
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