“Yes. Yes, I do. Definitely,” Murkowski told the alternative weekly newspaper. She said she expects a warm welcome from her “colleagues on both sides of the aisle” if she wins.

“They need my vote,” she said. “And let me tell you — when you win, it’s a whole different story out there. Because then you’re a player. Right now I’m a write-in candidate and I’m not my party’s nominee and [Republican leaders] are looking at the situation and saying, ‘We have to stick by the process,’ so they’re doing about what I expected of them, which is they’re standing by the party nominee. They may not be doing it gladly, but that’s what they’re doing.”