The Murkowski family

A father and daughter who have together held the same Alaska Senate seat for four decades.
Alaska · Senate · Governor
Combined career popular votes
1,106,633
Members on the ballot
2
Combined W–L
9–0
Years on the ballot
1980–2022

Frank Murkowski represented Alaska in the U.S. Senate before being elected the state’s governor. On taking office he appointed his daughter, Lisa Murkowski, to his vacated Senate seat, and she has held it ever since, including a 2010 write-in victory, keeping the seat in the family for some forty years.

The Murkowski family members, ranked by career popular votes
MemberOfficesYearsCareer popular votesRecord
Frank H. MurkowskiRSenate · Governor1980–2002603,50250
Lisa MurkowskiRSenate2004–2022503,13140

How this is measured

Combined career popular votes are summed across the 2 family members we track, each counted once across every presidential, U.S. Senate, governor, and U.S. House election in our data. Family membership is hand-curated and verified against primary sources, never matched by surname alone, so unrelated namesakes are never folded in. A vote for a presidential ticket counts for both the president and the vice-presidential candidate, matching how each profile reports its own totals.

Compiled by PolitiFinder · published June 14, 2026 · sources: Data & sources.