Sarah Palin.Photo: Pete Marovich/Getty Images
In a historic election,Sarah Palinhas lost her bid to serve out the remainder of Republican Rep.Don Young’s term in the U.S. House, which ends in January. Rep. Young died in March at age 88.
The results from the State Review Board were announced live viaFacebookWednesday night, revealing that Democratic candidate Mary Peltola brought in 91,206 votes, while Palin’s count was 85,987.
With her victory, Peltola becomes the first Democrat to hold the seat in 50 years and also the first woman and first Indigenous Alaskan.
The special election on Aug. 16 marked the first time Alaska voters used ranked-choice ballots in a general election. State officials allowed a large window of time for mail-in ballots to arrive, delaying the final results.
While the special election has finally come to a close, Palin remains on the campaign trail. That’s because Alaska voters still need to decide who will fill Rep. Young’s seat for the upcoming term that begins in 2023.
Though it’s reasonable to assume that the November general election will produce a similar outcome to August’s special election — given that voters are choosing from the same pool of candidates — nothing is set in stone.
Palin’s opponents in the concurrent House races have included the state-backed Republican candidate Nick Begich and a former state representative, Peltola. Palin earned the endorsement of former PresidentDonald Trumpearly on in the campaign, giving her an immediate boost in a once-crowded field.
This was Palin’s first bid for office since she left politics in 2009 when she resigned as governor of Alaska after an unsuccessful bid for vice president. She was previously the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Palin publicly weighed a run for president in 2012 but decided against it.
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In recent months, Palin has been in the headlines for non-political reasons.
Earlier this year, she took the stand in her suit againstThe New York Timesfor libel over a past editorial that falsely linked her political group’s statements to a mass shooting.
While the suit was ultimately dismissed (a federal judge said Palin failed to prove theTimesacted with “actual malice”), it helped spark a relationship with retired New York Rangers playerRon Duguay, which comes two years after her 2020divorce from ex Todd Palinafter three decades of marriage.
source: people.com
