Democrat files to run for Murkowski's Senate seat

A retired Matanuska-Susitna Borough teacher has filed to run as a Democrat for U.S. Senate in Alaska.

Pat Chesbro filed candidacy paperwork with the state Division of Elections on May 11. She would join a crowded field of 16 candidates in the Aug. 16 primary that includes the incumbent, Republican Lisa Murkowski, and Kelly Tshibaka, a Republican endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Murkowski has had a huge cash advantage in the race so far.

The filing deadline is June 1.

Chesbro’s campaign said she spent a career in education and is on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Planning Commission. She also worked as a department chair at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

The state party said Democrats, at their recent convention, urged Chesbro to run. Earlier this year, Democratic state Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson filed to run for U.S. Senate but later withdrew. She noted in part the “monumental expenses necessary to run a successful campaign.”

As an example of her views, Chesbro pointed to a May 11 vote in the U.S. Senate that could have put into law a woman’s right to an abortion. Murkowski voted against the bill. “If I had been in the Senate today, I would have voted with the Democrats to try to get that into law,” Chesbro said. “I would not have voted to approve (U.S. Supreme Court Justice) Amy Coney Barrett, who was put there, I think, especially because of her views on abortion.”

She said she expects abortion to be a major issue in her campaign, along with the war in Ukraine, inflation and immigration.

Chesbro, born in 1948 in Upstate New York, has lived in the Mat-Su Borough since 1974. She has been active in Democratic politics for decades, running unsuccessfully for state House in 2006 and state Senate in 2014.

 

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