She is running for Alaska’s lone congressional seat, marking her return to national politics after helping revive the anti-establishment rhetoric that has come to define the Republican Party. Sarah Palin, a former Alaska governor and the Republican nominee for vice president in 2008, announced her candidacy on Friday.
There are nearly 40 candidates running for the House seat left vacant by the unexpected death of Rep. Don Young, whose death last month sparked one of the most significant political shifts in the state for more than 50 years. She will join a crowded field of nearly 40 candidates running for the House seat left vacant by Representative Don Young.
A statement from Ms. Palin said she intended to respect Mr. Young’s legacy while creating a dystopian vision of a society in distress and attacking the “radical left,” high gas costs and inflation as well as illegal immigration and the “radical left.”
Since Senator John McCain snatched her from obscurity and nominated her as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket in August 2008, Ms. Palin has floated the idea of running for different positions in government on a number of occasions.
Nevertheless, after taking a lengthy sabbatical from political life, Ms. Palin has intimated in recent weeks that she is more serious than she had previously indicated about running for public office again. Ms. Palin said, during a recent interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, “There is a time and a season for everything.”
Additionally, she cited former President Donald J. Trump as an example of perseverance. In 2016, when she backed him for president, the two of them appeared on stage together. “People like Donald Trump, who have nothing to lose, are exactly what we need.” “It’s like me,” she said.
She did not rule out the prospect of competing for Mr. Young’s seat during an interview with the conservative cable network Newsmax last week, stating that she would consider it an honour to do so.
In a statement released on Friday, Ms. Palin emphasised her long history of public service in Alaska, where she was first elected to the Wasilla City Council more than three decades ago. She said that she currently resides in Wasilla and that she would continue to be loyal to the state even if she were transferred to Washington.
Echoing red-meat politics that have inflamed Republican supporters, she said that the country required leaders who will “fight the left’s socialist, big-government, and “America-last” political agenda.
Her choice to run for the office occurred at a time when she was gaining national prominence for a libel lawsuit against The New York Times.
Ms. Palin claimed that The New York Times defamed her when it published an editorial in 2017 that incorrectly linked her political discourse to a mass shooting in Alaska. One day after a federal judge in the case suggested he would dismiss the allegations if the jury found in her favour, a jury threw out the lawsuit because her legal team had failed to satisfy the high legal standards required of prominent people who claim libel. At least 50 years have passed since The New York Times, which recognised and rectified the mistake in question as soon as it was published, was found liable for libel in an American court of law.
Mr. Young, 88, was the longest-serving Republican member of Congress, having been originally elected in 1973. He died on March 18 after a protracted illness. The hunt among possible candidates to complete his expiring term began almost immediately after he was removed from office. Alaska Division of Elections received submissions from 37 candidates by Friday afternoon, far ahead of the deadline for filing formal paperwork, which was Friday.
On June 11, a special election will be conducted to fill the vacancy. The top four candidates who get the most votes will advance to the extraordinary general election on Aug. 16, which will be held in the same location. For the first time, the state will use a one-of-a-kind “top-four” selection procedure. This year, the usual open primary election for Mr. Young’s seat and the extraordinary general election for his replacement are being conducted on the same day, which might cause confusion.
In the Republican primary, Ms. Palin will face a diverse field of opponents, including Nick Begich III, the Republican scion of Alaskan political royalty; State Senator Joshua Revak, an Iraq war veteran who previously worked for Mr. Young; and Tara Sweeney, who served as assistant secretary of the interior for Indian affairs during President Donald Trump’s administration.
In the words of Art Hackney, a consultant on Mr. Revak’s campaign, “she obviously has a constituency.” He went on to say that “whoever wants to file” would have to “bring it on” in order to beat Mr. Revak in the general election.
She will also face some formidable progressive challengers, including Al Gross, a former orthopaedic surgeon who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2020 and is running as an independent, and Christopher Constant, an openly gay Democrat who is a member of the Anchorage Assembly. Al Gross is a former orthopaedic surgeon who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2020 and is running as an independent.
She had previously declined to run for president in 2012, despite efforts by several of the activists who would later assist Mr. Trump in his election to persuade her to do so against former President Barack Obama. She went on to become one of only three women to run for president on a major political party’s presidential ticket.
In recent weeks, she has returned to Fox News, where she formerly worked as a contributor for $1 million a year, laying the framework for her presidential candidacy.
