Former State Republican Chairmen Endorse Kelly Tshibaka for U.S. Senate
Randy Ruedrich Named Campaign Treasurer
April 2, 2021
(ANCHORAGE) – Three former chairmen of the Alaska Republican Party today announced their endorsement of conservative Republican Kelly Tshibaka’s bid to unseat Lisa Murkowski in the U.S. Senate. Randy Ruedrich, who served as chairman of the state GOP from 2000 to 2013, declared his support and has been appointed treasurer of Tshibaka’s campaign. Former chairmen Tuckerman Babcock (2016 to 2018) and Peter Goldberg (2013 to 2016) also announced their endorsements of Tshibaka. All three chairmen led the party during Murkowski’s lengthy time in the Senate but now support Tshibaka.
“I think it says a lot that these strong, principled Alaska Republican leaders have joined our campaign instead of supporting Lisa Murkowski,” Tshibaka said. “They know I represent a new generation of Alaska conservatives and will be a strong voice for our great state in the U.S. Senate. And they know that it’s time we had a senator who represents Alaska to Washington, D.C., rather than one who represents D.C. insiders to Alaska.”
“Alaska is at a pivotal time and we need a strong senator who will stand up for all Alaskans and not bow to the political pressure of Washington, D.C.,” Ruedrich said. “I am honored to support and work with Kelly Tshibaka, because she will always put Alaska first and fight for all of us.”
The former Republican chairmen recognize that Murkowski has grown more out of touch with Alaskan values with each passing year and is now best known for being a dependable vote for Democrats during almost two decades in the Senate. Murkowski literally inherited her seat in the Senate from her father, former Gov. Frank Murkowski, who appointed her to fill his own unexpired term in 2002 after he was elected governor. As a result, there has been a Murkowski in the Senate since the first year of the Reagan Administration.
Born and raised in Alaska, Tshibaka has spent her career exposing fraud and abuse in government and served as Commissioner of Administration for Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy from January 2019 until she stepped down this week to run for the Senate. Tshibaka’s father was a union electrician and Vietnam War veteran and her mother was one of the first workers at the startup of Prudhoe Bay. Her parents were homeless and living in a tent at one point but fought their way into the middle class.
Tshibaka graduated from Stellar Secondary School in Anchorage and was the first in her family to pursue a college degree, beginning her studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage before graduating from college and law school. Prior to serving in Alaska government, she saved American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in her work in offices of the inspector general for several federal agencies, including for two years in the Trump Administration.
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