Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Friday, August 7, 2026, that she will vote against Todd Blanche's nomination to serve as U.S. Attorney General, narrowing an already thin path to confirmation on the Senate floor. Murkowski joins Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in opposing Blanche, meaning the nominee cannot lose any additional Republican votes if all Democrats vote no, as expected, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains absent. NPR

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. I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that," she said. She added that she lacks confidence Blanche would serve as that check. Murkowski Senate Office

Murkowski pointed to several specific concerns. She cited sweeping immunity protections granted to the president and what she described as the politicization or weaponization of the Department of Justice. She also pointed to the administration's anti-weaponization fund, a nearly $2 billion DOJ account that the administration initially said would be available to those alleging wrongdoing by the federal government. 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 He provided a written statement on August 2 assuring lawmakers the fund was dead, and formally rescinded it during the week of August 3.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 flashpoint within the Republican conference. GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina held up the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote on Blanche's nomination, demanding written assurances that the fund was eliminated. 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 Judiciary Committee held Blanche's nomination hearing on July 15 at the Hart Senate Office Building. 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 GOP senators' concerns. Senate Judiciary Committee | NPR

Murkowski's interactions with Blanche predate the confirmation fight. In May, she pressed him on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis and on state and local grants during the DOJ's Fiscal Year 2027 budget request. In April, she and Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced an Inspector General 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 floor math is now razor-thin. The Senate operates on a simple-majority system for most nominations, meaning each vote matters one by one. With all Democrats expected to oppose Blanche, McConnell absent, and Collins and Murkowski in opposition, every remaining Republican senator becomes a must-have vote. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), 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 context here is about leverage and what happens to it after a confirmation vote. Murkowski did not dispute that the fund was formally rescinded. Her argument was that the rescission happened because the Senate had leverage during a pending nomination, not because the administration had reconsidered the policy on its merits. That reasoning positions the fund's elimination as conditional on continued senatorial pressure, raising the question of whether a confirmed attorney general would feel bound by commitments made under 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 milestones and the substantive concessions moved in tandem.

The confirmation now hinges on whether Blanche can hold every remaining Republican vote. Cassidy's posture, 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.