Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska on Friday endorsed Nikki Haley’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination, making her the first member of the U.S. Senate to back her campaign.

Ms. Murkowski has been a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump and was among the seven Republican senators who voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

For nearly two years, Sen. Lisa Murkowski played the long game on expanding drilling in Alaska: She voted for many of President Joe Biden’s key nominees. She backed several of the Democratic president’s legislative priorities. And all the while, she bent the ears of top White House officials every chance she could.

All that work has paid off — in a big way.

On Monday, the Interior Department, at Biden’s direction, announced it would move forward with a scaled-back, but still expansive, plan for energy extraction in the Alaska Republican’s home state.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, beat challenger Kelly Tshibaka to secure her fourth full Senate term.

Murkowski is considered to be one of the more centrist Republican voices in Congress, and her win could help President Joe Biden pass his agenda as well as extend her clout in the closely divided Senate.

The Alaska Senate race is headed to a ranked choice runoff, as no candidate on the ballot, including the top two vote-getters, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski and GOP challenger Kelly Tshibaka, will reach 50%, according to NBC News.

However the contest eventually shakes out, the seat will remain in GOP hands. The ranked-choice voting system allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

After a spate of mass shootings, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was one of 15 Republicans who voted in June for a gun bill that provides money for states that have or want to enact red-flag laws to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. States that do not have red-flag laws can use their funding for other programs, such as mental health and drug courts.

Mitch McConnell isn't backing down in his standoff with Donald Trump.

On Monday, the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with McConnell, announced that it had booked more than $7 miIlion worth of ad time in Alaska as GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski tries to fend off a challenge from Kelly Tshibaka, who has been endorsed by the former President. (The group also reserved ad time in six Senate battleground states.)

The Senate voted 53-47 on Thursday to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson as the newest Supreme Court justice, making her the first black woman to be a member of the nine-judge panel.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged to hold the confirmation vote ahead of lawmakers’ two-week recess that begins Friday. The process moved forward on Tuesday after the Senate approved a procedural measure to advance Jackson's nomination to the high court.