A few weeks ago, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska made a rather startling admission: The new Trump administration had left her feeling “anxious” and “afraid” of retaliation.
“I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right,” she said at a leadership summit, as reported by the Anchorage Daily News.
The senator isn’t alone on that front. Almost everyone I talk to expresses some level of fear about the current administration and the president’s supporters.
But Sen. Murkowski is in a unique position to do something specific about it.
She could drop out.
No, I’m not asking Sen. Murkowski to leave the legislature. I’m suggesting that she do something even more dramatic: Announce that she’s leaving the Republican Party, proclaim that the current party leadership has lost its way and fallen behind a power-mad president who’s ill-suited for office, and make clear that she can no longer be a participant in this immoral administration.
Sen. Murkowski herself suggested this possibility last year, so maybe the time has finally come.
Murkowski wouldn’t need to go as far as joining the Democratic Party. She could become an Independent, which would at the very least put her out of the Republican voting bloc and further weaken their current slim majority.
At the very least, this could make it a little bit harder for the Trump / MAGA / Musk / Project 2025 teams to implement their regressive agendas. Right now, everything anyone can do to slow them down will make a difference.
And Murkowski might find that others share her desire for change. Many Republicans are obviously afraid of Trump and his supporters or weary of his chaos. They might be afraid to stand up to him one on one, but there’s strength in numbers. A group defecting would be safer — and more powerful — than an individual.
And that’s the real potential of switching teams. The Republicans currently have a slim majority in both the House and Senate. If five, 10, or 20 elected officials stood up for the Constitution, due process, morality, and the environment and left the Republican Party, we could eliminate that majority or even flip the balance of power — long before the 2026 midterms.
Who else could possibly make this ethical defection? Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has a fairly bipartisan voting record (and obviously no love for Donald Trump). Mike Lawler of New York has taken a handful of moderate positions (and recently incurred the wrath of his constituents at a dramatic town hall). California’s David Valadao voted to impeach Trump in 2021 (and still managed to win reelection in 2024). West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito voted with Biden more often than not (albeit ever so slightly). New Jersey’s Tom Kean, Jr., hails from a district that voted for Biden in 2020 (and only narrowly went to Trump in 2024) and sits on the Climate Solutions Caucus, whose members also include co-chair Andrew Garbarino (NY) and Don Bacon (Nebraska). (Bacon recently said he didn’t want to follow Trump “off the cliff.”) Pennsylvanian Brian Fitzpatrick has a relatively decent environmental voting record for a Republican, according to the League of Conservation Voters.
That’s eight. Probably not enough to flip the balance of power all at once, but it’s a start. And as they say, “courage is contagious.” Maybe others who currently keep secret about their fear and loathing of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement could find some collective backbone and help to bolster their ranks.
And if enough of them stand up? Well, there’s even the potential to impeach President Trump and get him out of office before he blows up too much more. That would be a triumphant moment for American democracy.
Honestly, I don’t hold too much hope for it. Most of the current crop of Republican legislators remains too cowed, conservative, or craven to take such a bold step — even if the future of the country or the planet is on the line.
But who knows, maybe a few of them — like those reeling from angry town halls — are just looking for an easy “out.”
So what do you say, Lisa Murkowski, Mike Lawler, and other Republicans? Care to take a stand?
