If you didn’t already know it, former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is going to run for Congress this year.
The official announcement was made on Friday, letting everyone know that she would be running to replace the recently vacated seat of House Representative Don Young. Young died on March 18 at the age of 88, leaving a strong conservative legacy of some 49 years in service to his nation and state.
As Palin said of her recent decision, “Public service is a calling, and I would be honored to represent the men and women of Alaska in Congress, just as Rep. Young did for 49 years.” She continued saying that she had “very big shoes to fill” coming after Young but believed she could do a good job because she shares his “passion for Alaska and the United States of America.”
It’s likely you aren’t all that surprised that Palin is running for Congress. After all, we only knew it would be a matter of time before she got back into the thick of things. And with Congress and Washington DC being so liberally led, there’s no better time than now.
However, more than a few of you probably thought that if she did, her first attempt would be to take a seat in the Senate.
Firstly, with a name with as much name cred as hers, it only makes sense. Secondly, as you may know, Republican Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski is up for re-election this year, which means she could potentially be booted out.
Another thing to note is that while Murkowski is definitely a registered Republican, it is really only in name only that she can be called that. She is one of just three Republican senators who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump during his second and last impeachment trial.
And as such, she is one of a select few that the Democratic Party is desperately trying to convince to vote to confirm their Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is clearly about as liberal as they come. Naturally, the idea is to get Jackson onto the SCOTUS bench via a bipartisan vote. But to that, they clearly need someone other than die-hard liberals.
Therefore, RINOs like Murkowski, as well as those like Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming – both of whom also voted to impeach Trump – make the most likely of choices to persuade.
However, it is uncertain whether or not she will vote with the Democrats or not. While she already voted once for Jackson to appoint her as a federal judge last year, doing so for the Supreme Court is a completely different animal, especially during an election year.
Already, Murkowski seems to have her work of keeping her seat cut out for her. Enter her primary opponent, Kelly Tshibaka, the current head of the Alaska Department of Administration. Along with her political experience and love of public service, Tshibaka is also backed by the Alaska Republican Party. In addition, being an opponent to an anti-Trumper like Murkowski has even won her the endorsement of Donald Trump himself.
At this rate, Murkowski will be hard-pressed to keep her job come November, and that’s even before she decides to vote yes or no for Jackson’s confirmation.
As The Hill says of the situation, “a ‘no’ vote is the safer choice, as it deprives her Trump-supported challenger, Kelly Tshibaka, of another issue to run on.” But the fact that we don’t know which way a supposedly Republican senator will vote on the issue is already reason enough for us to need someone else in her seat.
This also means that even though Sarah Palin isn’t running for Senate, she has quite the opportunity to affect that upcoming race, depending on who she chooses to endorse. Although, I highly doubt she’ll be offering her support to Murkowski any time soon. Last year, she hinted that she might run against the current senator instead of trying for the House of Representatives.
Clearly, that’s not what she decided. As such, even though the candidate pool for her contest is rather large, with some 51 against her, she has the biggest name of them all, unless you consider a crazed socialist who legally changed his name to Santa Claus from North Pole, Alaska, a serious contender…
