Trump Ally Preparing Senate Run Against Murkowski: Report
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is preparing to announce a 2028 run for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, according to several sources close to the governor who spoke exclusively to Fox News this week.
The move would place him against Murkowski, who has repeatedly clashed with President Donald Trump and is often viewed as one of the most moderate Republicans in Congress. Dunleavy, by contrast, has been a strong Trump ally since 2016, Fox News
“He’s not going to quit his term,” a top source close to Dunleavy, who previously worked with him in Juneau, told Fox News Digital. The source stressed that Dunleavy intends to complete his time as governor before seeking higher office.
The last governor to leave office early to pursue national ambitions was Sarah Palin, who resigned in 2009. “She never recovered,” the source said.
Dunleavy has earned a reputation for avoiding Washington’s spotlight but producing results in Alaska. “He’s not about an ego and pushing himself in front of the cameras. He gets stuff done,” the source said. “He doesn’t like the cocktail parties and photo ops.”
Even so, those close to him say he understands that “being in Washington is the only way to get things done.” While he has joked that he prefers Alaska’s Arctic landscapes to “all this concrete” in Washington, he recognizes the need to represent the state at the national level.
Dunleavy was the second governor to endorse Trump in 2016 and has been one of the most frequent governors to visit the White House despite the 3,500-mile distance. “Trump has talked to him before about running and wants him to run,” the source said.
Dunleavy also attended Trump’s Aug. 15 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, further underscoring his role as one of the president’s key allies in Alaska.
Winning as a Republican in Alaska has historically been difficult. Former Gov. Jay Hammond was the last to win re-election in 1978. Sean Parnell, who became governor after Palin’s resignation, did not win re-election outright.
Still, Dunleavy is seen as a formidable candidate. “A lot of people have mentioned this (race) to him and … I think it is a very viable option for him,” another source told Fox News Digital.
“Obviously there are a lot of frustrations with Sen. Murkowski,” the source added, noting her tense relationship with Trump. “Gov. Dunleavy has been not only a successful governor, but a strong ally for him. So it’s only natural that he’d be hearing that from Alaskans — but also from folks in the broader MAGA movement.”
Dunleavy, like Murkowski, has succeeded under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, which critics say has benefited Democrats. But unlike her past challengers, sources say he has broad support outside conservative circles.
He is also respected among Native communities across the North Slope and rural Alaska, where he has focused on energy development, infrastructure, and rural education. Those ties could prove critical in a statewide race where the Native vote has often played a decisive role.
“Murkowski has never faced a challenger like him,” another source said. “He’s built support that goes beyond just conservatives.”
A top Alaska political analyst agreed. “Conservatives would welcome an opportunity to unseat Murkowski,” the analyst said Thursday. “The fact that Trump and Murkowski have had such a strained relationship and Dunleavy and the president (have) a good relationship is really what has led us to this point.”
Murkowski, the daughter of former Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski, has shown her resilience in the past. She famously won a write-in campaign in 2010 after losing the GOP primary to Tea Party candidate Joe Miller. But analysts say Dunleavy would represent her most serious threat yet.
The 2028 matchup would pit two of Alaska’s most prominent figures against each other: Murkowski, the entrenched moderate with a family legacy in Alaska politics, and Dunleavy, the Trump-aligned governor who has drawn support across communities.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani delivered a fiery victory speech late Tuesday, promising to deliver on his progressive agenda and declaring his election a historic mandate for change.
Mamdani, 34, who will become New York City’s first socialist, first Muslim, and first mayor of South Asian descent, claimed victory at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theatre, The New York Post
The Uganda-born lawmaker said his win belonged to all immigrant New Yorkers and condemned Islamophobic attacks on his campaign.
“As Eugene Debs once said, I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity,” Mamdani said, quoting the early 20th-century socialist presidential candidate.
He also invoked the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, saying, “A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new.”
They told everyone it would be private — “just them, no pressure.” But the truth was: nothing about Taylor Swift’s engagement was ever going to be small.
Not when the groom is Travis Kelce, NFL royalty. Not when the bride is the most written-about woman in the world. And certainly not when her mother, Andrea Swift, was quietly flown in to London two days earlier… with no public record, no media trail, and no one really asking why.
It wasn’t for logistics. It wasn’t even to help Taylor pick a dress.
According to a family friend, Taylor had only one request that week:
“I need my mom there — not for the photos. For me.”
They spent the day before the proposal alone in the flat Taylor rented just outside Kensington Gardens. No stylists. No assistants. Just two women who’d been through decades of stages, stadiums, sickness, and survival — now sitting on a sofa, talking about a future that neither one wanted to rush.
Andrea had seen it all: the heartbreaks that went public, the ones that didn’t. The panic attacks backstage. The Grammy nights. The nights after. She knew the difference between romance and rehearsal. And she could read Taylor’s voice in a way no one else could.
That morning, the voice had changed.
“It’s not about the ring, Mama. I just… I know now.”
Andrea didn’t say much. But she packed her things and stood by the car when it was time to go.
When Travis knelt down in the garden, Taylor covered her mouth — the way people do when they’re caught between disbelief and the edge of tears.
But Andrea Swift didn’t move.
She stood at the edge of the hydrangea hedge, wrapped in a muted navy coat, one hand gripping the strap of her purse, the other folded across her chest. Her face wasn’t smiling. Her eyes weren’t crying. But something about her stillness told a deeper story than either.
Observers who were present — mainly staff and one trusted photographer — later said the energy around Andrea was “still, but tight.”
One of them described it this way:
“Everyone else leaned in. Andrea stayed back. Not distant — just rooted. Like she needed to be there, but not be part of the moment.”
And when the ring went on Taylor’s finger, she didn’t look down.
She looked up — past Travis, past the camera. She looked for her mother.
What she saw was the same woman who held her hand before her first school performance, who rubbed her back in the hospital waiting room during chemo. But this time, there was no nod. No smile. Just a soft narrowing of the eyes. And Taylor, for a half-second, froze.
That second wasn’t caught in the main photos. But it was seen. And for the people who know the Swifts, it meant more than any diamond.
She didn’t cry. She didn’t speak. But the way she looked at Taylor… said everything.
After the proposal, when the cameras were off and the garden started to empty, Taylor walked over and wrapped both arms around Andrea from behind. They didn’t speak for nearly a minute.
Someone nearby overheard Taylor whisper:
“I saw your face. Was it… too fast?”
Andrea’s reply was as soft as it was sharp:
“No, baby. It was just real.”
Those six words stayed with Taylor the rest of the day.
Because no matter how extravagant the gesture, no matter how global the headlines, there is only one woman who can still remind her what “real” feels like. And in that moment, Taylor wasn’t a pop icon. She wasn’t the girl on every screen.
She was just a daughter, standing beside the only person who remembers the world before all this began.
Friends close to the family say Andrea’s quiet reaction wasn’t hesitation — it was
But there’s something else. A private line, never meant to be quoted — but too powerful not to share. One source claims that weeks earlier, in a rare late-night conversation, Taylor had told Andrea:
“If I ever get engaged, I’ll only say yes if I see you smiling first.”
And that’s the twist no one expected.
Because in the garden… Andrea didn’t smile.
Not because she wasn’t happy. But because some moments are too big to fit inside a smile.
Now fans are asking: was it blessing, hesitation, or something deeper?
Whatever it was, one thing is certain — the real engagement didn’t happen when Travis opened the box.
It happened the moment Taylor looked into her mother’s eyes…
…and decided to say yes anyway.