Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said Friday, August 7, 2026, that she will vote against Todd Blanche, President Trump's pick for Attorney General. That makes her the second Republican senator to oppose him, after Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. NPR

The Attorney General is the top law enforcement official in the country, leading the Department of Justice. The Senate must vote to confirm the president's choice for that role.

Murkowski released her position in a statement on X and on her Senate website. "The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration," she said. She added that she lacks confidence Blanche would serve as that check. Murkowski Senate Office

Murkowski pointed to several concerns. She cited sweeping immunity protections granted to the president and what she described as the politicization of the Department of Justice — meaning using the department's power to go after political enemies. She also pointed to the administration's anti-weaponization fund, a nearly $2 billion account at the DOJ that the administration initially said would be available to people who said the federal government had wronged them. Murkowski said the fund likely would have rewarded January 6 protesters and was only taken off the table because the nomination was pending and the Senate had leverage. NPR

Blanche told members of Congress in June that the anti-weaponization fund had been scrapped. He provided a written statement on August 2 assuring lawmakers the fund was dead, and formally rescinded it during the week of August 3. NPR

The fund had already been a source of tension among Republicans. GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina held up the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote on Blanche, demanding written assurances that the fund was eliminated. The committee writes the laws and holds hearings on nominees before they reach the full Senate. Blanche's August 2 written statement cleared the way for the committee to advance his nomination on August 4 by a 12-10 party-line vote, with all Republicans in favor and all Democrats opposed. Reuters | CBS News

Blanche is currently serving as acting attorney general. President Trump nominated him to the post after firing Pam Bondi from the role. Blanche was hired by Trump in 2023 as his personal attorney to defend him against charges related to hush money payments, attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, and the mishandling of classified documents. C-SPAN

The committee held Blanche's nomination hearing on July 15. Since then, Blanche has traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers and to Alaska to meet with local and tribal leaders, working to ease Republican senators' concerns. Senate Judiciary Committee | NPR

Murkowski's interactions with Blanche go back further than this nomination fight. In May, she pressed him on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis and on state and local grants during a DOJ budget request. In April, she and Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced an audit of the DOJ's failure to release the full Epstein files, after Blanche, then serving as Deputy Attorney General, said the department would not disclose all of them by the December 19 deadline. Murkowski Senate Office | Murkowski Senate Office

The vote count in the Senate is now razor-thin. The Senate is split so closely between Republicans and Democrats that every single vote can change the outcome. With all Democrats expected to oppose Blanche, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky absent, and Collins and Murkowski in opposition, every remaining Republican senator becomes a must-have vote. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who has become increasingly vocal in opposition to the administration after losing his renomination bid to a Trump-backed challenger, is a key remaining vote. NPR

The broader question here is about leverage and what happens once it is gone. Murkowski did not dispute that the fund was formally rescinded. Her argument was that the fund was dropped because the Senate had leverage during a pending nomination, not because the administration had changed its mind on the policy itself. That reasoning raises the question of whether a confirmed attorney general would feel bound by promises made while the Senate still had that leverage. The fund's formal rescission during the week of August 3, after Blanche's written assurance on August 2, followed by the committee vote on August 4, tracks a sequence in which the procedural steps and the actual concessions moved together.

The confirmation now hinges on whether Blanche can hold every remaining Republican vote. Cassidy's stance, shaped by his own primary loss, makes him the most visible wildcard. A single defection beyond Collins and Murkowski, combined with unified Democratic opposition and McConnell's absence, would sink the nomination on the floor.