The 2004 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on Tuesday November 2, Republican candidate and Interim United States senator Lisa Murkowski won re-election to a full term in office by defeating former governor of Alaska Tony Knowles. Murkowski had been appointed in 2002 by Frank Murkowski, her father and the governor of Alaska.
At the time, this was the closest United States Senate election in Alaska history; it has since been surpassed in 2008, 2010 and 2014. Murkowski was the first woman elected to the United States Congress from Alaska. As of 2025, MurkowskiâÂÂs total vote of 149,773 remains the most she has received in her four campaigns for United States Senate.
On November 5, 2002, U.S. senator Frank Murkowski ran for election as governor of Alaska and won, resigning from the United States Senate to take office as governor on December 2. On December 20, Murkowski appointed his daughter Lisa, a Republican member of the Alaska House of Representatives from Anchorage, to his former seat for the remainder of his unexpired term. Murkowski passed over other potential appointees, including retiring Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin and state senator Ben Stevens, who was the son of the state's popular senior senator, Ted Stevens.
By 2004, popular opinion had swung against the Murkowski family because of a state tax increase passed by Frank. Lisa Murkowski had very low approval ratings and faced accusations that she owed her seat to nepotism. Knowles enlisted extensive out-of-state support in his bid for the seat and ran on his support for drilling in ANWR, in contrast to his national party.
Murkowski received crucial support from Ted Stevens, who worked to rescue her campaign and taped advertisements warning Alaskans that electing a Democrat could result in fewer federal dollars for Alaska.