We’ve known for quite a while now that Senator Lisa Murkowski (R – Alaska) was going to be facing a primary challenge this year. Back in July of last year, the state Republican Party committee voted overwhelmingly to endorse former Department of Administration commissioner Kelly Tshibaka to replace her on the ticket. But that doesn’t mean that Murkowski is without allies. During an interview on CNN yesterday, she picked up an endorsement from an unlikely source from the other side of the aisle. Democrat Joe Manchin announced that he would be supporting Murkowski’s election bid, saying that they had worked together successfully in the Senate and it would be hypocritical of him to turn around and shun her now just because of her party affiliation. (Associated Press)

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday endorsed Republican colleague Lisa Murkowski for reelection, crossing party lines to back the incumbent from Alaska who faces a primary challenger supported by former President Donald Trump.

The conservative West Virginia lawmaker said he has teamed well with Murkowski in the 50-50 Senate to build bipartisan support for legislation such as President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law. He said Alaska and the Senate are well-served with her in office.

“It’s hypocritical to basically work with a person day in and day out and then, when they’re in cycle, you’re supposed to be against them because they have an R or D by their name,” said Manchin, who appeared with Murkowski on CNN’s “State of the Union” to promote the values of bipartisanship.

How much influence a West Virginia Democrat will have on Republicans in Alaska is debatable at best, but that’s not really the point here. This is a totally risk-free move for Manchin because he doesn’t have to worry about invoking the ire of Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democratic leadership. They’re already so completely sick of him that he can pretty much do whatever he feels like. And this was an opportunity for him to needle Schumer a bit more since he knows that the press will certainly be asking Schumer about the endorsement. Getting under the Senate Majority Leader’s skin is pretty much a full-time hobby for Manchin now.

For her part, Murkowski doesn’t need to worry about accepting the endorsement of a Democrat. Alaskan politics are pretty weird by any standard definition and the outcome of statewide elections up there is almost entirely decided by the large number of independent voters. Remember that this isn’t Murkowski’s first trip to this sort of rodeo. In 2010 she lost the GOP primary to Joe Miller but came back to win her seat as a write-in candidate, garnering most of the independent vote.

Of course, back then she didn’t have to contend with the Trump factor. Donald Trump endorsed Tshibaka almost as soon as she finished writing her announcement of her intent to run. Trump still maintains a lot of popularity in Alaska, carrying the state by 10 points in 2020 and beating Hillary Clinton by 15 in 2016. This could wind up being more of a Murkowski vs Trump matchup than anything else.

One thing Murkowski may have going for her here isn’t so much the influence that Manchin could have on Republicans in her state (virtually none) but independent voters. After all of the divisiveness in Washington in recent years, it’s not hard to imagine that a touch of bipartisan cooperation could be appealing to some of the more centrist voters in Alaska. I don’t know if that’s enough to sway the balance beam significantly, but if she winds up having to run another mail-in campaign this year she’ll need every selling point she can scrape up.