Why a senator from Alaska broke from her party; photos from a crazy day on Capitol Hill; and Hillary’s Broadway debut.
Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.
[ Get On Politics delivered to your inbox.]
Senator Lisa Murkowski didn’t say much. She mostly listened, as the group of women gathered in her office shared their stories of sexual violence.
When Ms. Murkowski spoke, said Hilary Morgan, a consultant from Anchorage, it was to tell the women how her “heart had been breaking” for the last two weeks.
“She said she’s probably six inches shorter because of the weight of everything,” said Ms. Morgan, who was part of that group of women, 130 in all, who had flown 15 hours from Alaska to Washington with less than a day’s notice to meet with their senator.
This morning, Ms. Murkowski voted no on advancing the confirmation of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She was the lone Republican to oppose him.
That’s not enough to derail his path to the court, which was essentially guaranteed this afternoon. But her vote makes a strong statement — both about Ms. Murkowski and our current political climate.
It’s easy to forget how hard it is to be an independent in Washington. Now, more than ever, this is a town with two teams. Our national mavericks — figures like Senator John McCain or Justice Anthony Kennedy — have mostly vanished.
But if they have an heir, it may just be the female senator from Alaska.
Her critiques of the president steal the spotlight less often than those of Senators Jeff Flake and Ben Sasse.
But she’s also more likely to actually vote against the administration, particularly when it would help Alaska. She opposed a Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act because of threatened Medicaid cuts, and was against the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary because of risks to rural school budgets.
Yes, those votes are outliers: She has also voted for a number of the administration’s priorities, including the tax bill. But they’re more opposition than nearly any other Republican senator, including Mr. Flake and Mr. Sasse, has shown during the Trump administration.
Ms. Murkowski doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about being out of step with her party, says Andrew Halcro, an old friend who served with her in the Alaska Legislature.
“If history is any indicator, she’ll just shrug it off and continue to do her job,” he said. “Every time I’ve seen Lisa Murkowski take a tough vote for the last 20 years, her decisions have always come down to people, not politics.”
If Ms. Murkowski is unique, perhaps it’s because her home state’s politics are unlike any other’s.
Her father, former Senator Frank Murkowski, appointed her to the Senate in 2002 when he became the state’s governor. (She was picked over an up-and-coming mayor from Wasilla, Sarah Palin.)
Eight years later, Ms. Palin backed another Republican, Joe Miller, who defeated Ms. Murkowski in the primary. Against the wishes of party leaders, Ms. Murkowski launched a write-in campaign. She won the election, largely thanks to the backing of women and Alaska Natives — an unusual coalition for a Republican.
Ms. Murkowski told reporters that she returned to the Senate with a “stiffer, straighter” spin.
Republicans today were quick to condemn Ms. Murkowski’s vote on Judge Kavanaugh. (Even Ms. Palin chimed in.)
“There will be long-term resentment among Republican voters due to Senator Murkowski’s lack of courage today,” said Penny Nance, president of the conservative group Concerned Women for America. “Conservative women never forget.”
Their remarks line up with those of national Republicans, who, polls show, strongly back Judge Kavanaugh. But, as always, politics in Alaska are a different story.
The state has the highest rate of sexual assault in the country, according to the F. B. I., and the rate is particularly high among Native women. That’s a fact Ms. Murkowski knows well: This summer she introduced two pieces of bipartisan legislation to end sex trafficking among Native Americans and to improve critical care among the victims of sexual violence.
Issues of sexual violence clearly weighed on Ms. Murkowski during her vote today. Judge Kavanaugh, she said in remarks to reporters outside the Senate chamber, is “a good man.”
But, she added, “if people who are victims, people who feel that there is no fairness in our system of government, particularly in our courts, then you’ve gone down a path that is not good and right.”
“We’re dealing with issues right now that are bigger than the nominee.”
____________________
A remark by the Democratic Senate candidate in Tennessee, Phil Bredesen, caught our eye today, as we track how the campaigns are responding to the Kavanaugh confirmation.
Mr. Bredesen released a statement saying that if he were in the Senate, he would support Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination. He followed up with an ad proclaiming his political independence. Of the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, he said: “I don’t even support him.”
His stance cost him the backing of a top Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA Action. (They had not yet put any money into his race.)
It’s a political play that makes a lot of sense: Mr. Bredesen is running a tight race in a red state. He needs to win independents and disaffected Republicans. For a Democrat in Tennessee, publicly losing national Democratic support might be better than having it.
[ Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every evening.]
____________________
I spent the morning on Capitol Hill, observing all the chaos around today’s historic vote.
People packed themselves into the offices of senators (including Joe Manchin’s, above).
Everywhere Ms. Murkowski went, she was trailed by reporters.
And outside the Capitol, the streets were flooded with protesters, many of whom were arrested.
____________________
Hillary Clinton is coming to Broadway. No, she’s not doing a one-woman show. She will be the main character (played by Laurie Metcalf) in the new drama “Hillary and Clinton,” which depicts a 2008 evening in which the presidential candidate, struggling in Iowa against a more charismatic opponent, calls on her husband for help.
We thought it was a good time to pick the brain of The Times’s theater reporter, Michael Paulson, about some of his favorite plays starring real political figures. Here’s what he sent us:
There are so many! But here are five that come to mind, in reverse chronological order:
• “ Hamilton,” obviously — the 2015 musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which features George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and, of course, Aaron Burr, in addition to the title character, Alexander Hamilton.
