Alaska's Joe Miller Wants to Abolish Federal Minimum Wage

Republican candidate for Alaska's U.S. Senate seat, Joe Miller, answers questions from the press...

Republican candidate for Alaska's U.S. Senate seat, Joe Miller, answers questions from the press following a debate between Miller and his Democrat opponent Scott McAdams, at the Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon, in Juneau, Alaska, in this Sept. 16, 2010 file photo.

(Chris Miller/AP Photo)

State Power Versus Federal Government

Running as a tea party insurgent, Miller defeated incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in a stunning upset to win the Republican nomination for Senate in Alaska.

A graduate of West Point and Yale University Law School, Miller wants to scale back the size and power of the federal government to the powers specifically listed in the Constitution.

"What I'd recommend that you do is go to the Constitution and look at the enumerated powers because what we have is something that we call the 10th amendment that says, look if it's not there if it's not enumerated, then it's delegated to the states," Miller said. "Everything that's not there is reserved to the states and the people."

Related

WATCH: Murphy: GOP Base 'Wants Candidates Like Me, Like Joe'

WATCH: Primary Results for Alaska, Arizona and Florida

WATCH: RNC: 'We Look For Candidates Who Can Win'

Miller stood by his previous statement that federal unemployment insurance is also not authorized by the Constitution and that the decision on whether or not to provide unemployment benefits should be up to the states, as should virtually all federal regulations that don't relate to interstate commerce.

"It still makes far more sense to have those kinds of decisions made at the level closest to the people, where there is more accountability, less inefficiency, where there is more understanding of where the people ought to be and what the state role of government is," Miller said. "If you like big government, move to Massachusetts."

Miller is now locked in a three-way race against Democrat Scott McAdams and Murkowski, who is running as a write-in candidate.

Miller, 43, and his wife Kathleen have eight kids, ages 7 to 21. If he wins, he and his wife plan to move to Washington with the six kids who still live at home.

"We are moving here, yes," Miller told us.

But don't call him a Washingtonian.

"No we're still Alaskans," he said. "I can guarantee you that we're gonna spend most of our time in Alaska that we can outside of the duties that we have here."