<\/a>Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, walks to the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Murkowski, who voted to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial and has repeatedly bumped heads with the former president, announced Friday, Nov. 12, that she will run for reelection. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
A race takes shape <\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t According to the Alaska Division of Elections and filings with the Federal Elections Commission, Murkowski has several challengers for her Senate seat, but so far none of them are Democrats. FEC filings show<\/a> Murkowski with a strong lead over her competitors in terms of cash on hand. The latest filings show Murkowski with $3.2 million on hand and the next closest candidate, Tshibaka, with almost $300,000. As an incumbent, Murkowski is allowed to use money collected during her previous campaign.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t That lead was mentioned during Friday’s news conference, as was a recent court decision that brought an end to certain campaign contributions.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Murkowski said she couldn’t say how much she expected the campaign to cost but given the tension surrounding the race it would likely be a lot.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “If this were a campaign that were just left to Alaksans we could probably run a reasonable campaign,” Murkowski said, but politics in the campaign were being driven by “a feud by others from outside, and maybe a little bit of retribution. That may bring in dollars from the outside.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Other challengers for the Senate seat include registered Republicans Samuel Little, Karl Speights and Paul Kendall; Libertarian Sean Thorne; registered Alaska Independence Party candidates Joe Stevens and Dustin Darden and nonpartisan candidates Sidney Hill and Dave Darden.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Murkowski officially filed with Alaska DOE Friday but Tshibaka still has not officially filed with the state, DOE spokesperson Tiffany Montemayor said in an email.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t