In Alaska, the former vice presidential nominee lost the special election following the death of the late Republican Don Young.
(Photo: AP)
new York Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin failed in her political comeback attempt this week despite support from Donald Trump. After the death of the late Republican Don Young, the 58-year-old ran in a special election on Thursday to hold Alaska’s only seat in the House of Representatives for the final months of the legislature.
But instead of Palin, the democrat Mary Peltola surprisingly won. The 49-year-old will be the first woman and native Alaskan to represent the state in Washington and the first time since 1973 a Democrat. Peltola is considered politically moderate, gets along well with Palin, but has different views on issues such as abortion and environmental protection.
Both women will also run for the midterm elections in November. In the so-called “midterms” the Americans re-elect the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate. The election is extremely close.
For Palin, the election is a bitter defeat. It was her first attempt to regain a foothold in politics on the national stage after her foray into television. The fact that the ex-governor and former candidate for the vice presidency with John McCain now lost to Peltola, who is hardly known beyond her state borders, is a particular disgrace.
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Palin was the figurehead of the right-wing populist Tea Party movement. It was the beginning of the Republican Party’s shift to the right that ultimately paved the way for Donald Trump. After she and McCain lost the 2008 election to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Palin continued to campaign for the Tea Party movement. Her book Going Rogue sold millions of copies.
Palin supported Donald Trump early on
Among other things, she worked as a commentator for the conservative broadcaster Fox News and brought out two television seasons about herself and her home state with “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” and “Amazon America with Sarah Palin”. Her attempt to start her own subscription online channel, Sarah Palin Channel, was short-lived.
Her daughter Bristol, who became pregnant as a 17-year-old during Palin’s campaign despite the family’s conservative beliefs, has continued to keep the family in the spotlight with various reality shows about her life and participation, “Dancing with the Stars.”
Sarah Palin had supported Trump in his political appearance early on and was able to count on his blessing in her election campaign. “Sarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016,” Trump said in April. “Now it’s my turn!”
In July, Trump personally traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, to campaign for Palin in the House of Representatives and Kelly Tshibaka in the Senate at a major campaign event there.
Palin once again stylized himself on stage as an icon of freedom. “It’s not about Democrats versus Republicans anymore. It’s about control versus freedom,” she said. “It’s good versus evil”.
“Don’t back off, reload!”
She learned from her father to keep her spine straight and not give in. “My father’s exact words were, ‘Don’t back down, reload,'” said the politician, known for her love of guns.
Democrat Mary Peltola defeated Sarah Palin in Alaska.
(Photo: Reuters)
But despite Trump’s support, it wasn’t enough for the election. Instead, the attention is now on the democratic winner Peltola. She is committed to more protection for salmon and therefore wants to stop the controversial Pebble Mines project. It is a one square mile mining project in the middle of a key salmon farming area to extract copper, gold and the transition metal molybdenum. On the other hand, Peltola is open to other infrastructure projects such as a major motorway.
The Democrat studied in northern Colorado and spent the summers working as a salmon and herring technician for the Alaska Department of Fisheries and Game. After college, Peltola went into local politics and supported Republican politicians at the federal level. In the meantime she also worked as a journalist in Alaska.
She had interrupted her own political career for a few years in 2009 because of her four children. Now she is Alaska’s only representative in the House of Representatives in Washington.
Peltola and Palin’s performances in these extraordinary elections and their performances in November’s midterms are being followed with great interest by political observers in the US: Alaska is seen as a test of how much supporting Trump can do or harm candidates.
Palin is the second person supported by Trump to fail in less than two weeks. Trump candidate Marc Molinaro also lost to Democrat Pat Ryan in the conservative Hudson Valley in upstate New York. Ryan had primarily advertised with a clear commitment to abortion rights.
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