Sarah Palin

Palin was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992, winning 530 votes to 310.[40][41] Throughout her tenure on the city council and the rest of her political career, Palin has been a Republican since registering in 1982.[42]

Concerned that revenue from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent wisely,[43] Palin ran for mayor of Wasilla in 1996, defeating incumbent mayor John Stein[44] 651 to 440 votes.[45] Her biographer described her campaign as targeting wasteful spending and high taxes;[22] her opponent, Stein, said that Palin introduced abortion, gun rights, and term limits as campaign issues.[46] The election was nonpartisan, though the state Republican Party ran advertisements for Palin.[46] She ran for reelection against Stein in 1999 and won, 909 votes to 292.[47] In 2002, she completed the second of the two consecutive three-year terms allowed by the city charter.[48] She was elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors in 1999.[49]

Using revenue generated by a 2% sales tax, which had been approved by Wasilla voters in October 1992,[50][51] Palin cut property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal property and business inventory taxes.[52][53] Using municipal bonds, she made improvements to the roads and sewers and increased funding to the police department.[46] She oversaw creation of new bike paths and procured funding for storm-water treatment to protect freshwater resources. At the same time, she reduced the budget of the local museum and postponed discussions about a new library and city hall, which some of the council believed was needed.[52]

Soon after taking office in October 1996, Palin eliminated the position of museum director.[54] She asked for updated resumes and resignation letters from "city department heads who had been loyal to Stein", although the mayor's office was considered a non-partisan position.[55] These included the city police chief, public works director, finance director, and librarian.[56] Palin stated this request was to find out their intentions and whether they supported her. She temporarily required department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters, saying they needed to learn her administration's policies.[56] She created the position of city administrator[46] and reduced her own $68,000 salary by 10%. By mid 1998 this action was reversed by the city council.[57]

In October 1996, Palin asked library director Mary Ellen Emmons if she would object to the removal of a book from the library if people were picketing to have the book removed.[58] Emmons responded that she would, and others as well.[58] Palin stated that she had not been proposing censorship but had been discussing many issues with her staff that were "both rhetorical and realistic in nature."[58] No attempt was made to remove books from the library during Palin's tenure as mayor.[59]

Palin said she fired Police Chief Irl Stambaugh because he did not fully support her efforts to govern the city.[60] Stambaugh filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination and violation of his free speech rights.[61] The judge dismissed Stambaugh's lawsuit, holding that the police chief served at the discretion of the mayor and could be terminated for nearly any reason, even a political one,[62][63] and ordered Stambaugh to pay Palin's legal fees.[62]

During her second term as mayor, Palin proposed and promoted the construction of a municipal sports center to be financed by a 0.5%[46] sales tax increase and a $14.7 million bond issue.[64] Voters approved the measure by a 20-vote margin, and the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex (later named the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center) was built on time and under budget. However, the city spent an additional $1.3 million because of an eminent domain lawsuit caused by the city's failure to obtain clear title to the property before beginning construction.[64] The city's long-term debt grew from about $1 million to $25 million because of expenditures of $15 million for the sports complex, $5.5 million for street projects, and $3 million for water improvement projects. The Wall Street Journal characterized the project as a "financial mess."[64] A city council member defended the spending increases as being necessitated by the city's growth during that time.[65]

Palin also joined with nearby communities in hiring the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for federal funds. The firm secured nearly $8 million in earmarks for the Wasilla city government,[66] including $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, and $900,000 for sewer repairs.[67] In 2008, Wasilla's current mayor credited Palin's 75 percent property tax cuts and infrastructure improvements with bringing "big-box stores" and 50,000 shoppers per day to Wasilla.[40]

In 2002, Palin ran for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way Republican primary.[68] Following her defeat, she campaigned throughout the state for the nominated Republican governor-lieutenant governor ticket of Frank Murkowski and Leman.[69] Murkowski and Leman won and Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in December 2002 to assume the governorship. Palin was said to be on the "short list" of possible appointees to Murkowski's U.S. Senate seat,[69] but Murkowski ultimately appointed his daughter, State Representative Lisa Murkowski, as his successor in the Senate.[70]

Governor Murkowski offered other jobs to Palin and, in February 2003, she accepted an appointment to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which oversees Alaska's oil and gas fields for safety and efficiency.[69] While she had little background in the area, she said she wanted to learn more about the oil industry and was named chair of the commission and ethics supervisor.[69][71][72] By November 2003, she was filing nonpublic ethics complaints with the state attorney general and the governor against a fellow commission member, Randy Ruedrich, a former petroleum engineer and at the time the chair of the state Republican Party.[69] He was forced to resign in November 2003.[69] Palin resigned in January 2004 and put her protests against Ruedrich's "lack of ethics" into the public arena[22][69] by filing a public complaint against Ruedrich,[73] who was then fined $12,000. She joined with Democratic legislator Eric Croft[74] in complaining that Gregg Renkes, then the attorney general of Alaska,[75] had a financial conflict of interest in negotiating a coal exporting trade agreement.[76][77] Renkes also resigned his post.[22][72]

From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group designed to provide political training for Republican women in Alaska.[78] In 2004, Palin told the Anchorage Daily News that she had decided not to run for the U.S. Senate that year against the Republican incumbent, Lisa Murkowski, because her teenage son opposed it. Palin said, "How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. Senator?"[79]

Palin in Germany, July 2007

In June 2007, Palin signed a record $6.6 billion operating budget into law.[94] At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the capital budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects and reduced the capital budget to $1.6 billion.[95]

In 2008, Palin vetoed $286 million, cutting or reducing funding for 350 projects from the FY09 capital budget.[96]

Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet, a purchase made by the Murkowski administration for $2.7 million in 2005 against the wishes of the legislature.[97] In August 2007, the jet was listed on eBay, but the sale fell through, and the plane later sold for $2.1 million through a private brokerage firm.[98]

Palin lived in Juneau during the legislative session, and lived in Wasilla and worked out of offices in Anchorage the rest of the year. Since the office in Anchorage was 565 miles from Juneau, while she worked there, state officials said she was permitted to claim a $58 per diem travel allowance and reimbursement for hotel. She filed for per diem, claiming a total of $16,951, but rather than stay at a hotel overnight, regularly commuted the 50 miles one way to her home in Wasilla.[99] She did not use the former governor's private chef.[100]

Both Republicans and Democrats criticized Palin for taking the per diem, as well as an additional $43,490 in travel expenses on occasions when her family accompanied her on state business.[101][102] Palin's staffers responded that these practices were in line with state policy, that her gubernatorial expenses were 80% below those of her predecessor Murkowski,[101] and that "many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of 'state business' with the party extending the invitation."[99]

In February 2009, the State of Alaska, reversing a policy that had treated the payments as legitimate business expenses under the Internal Revenue Code, decided that per diems paid to state employees for stays in their own homes would be treated as taxable income and will be included in employees' gross income on their W-2 forms.[103] Palin had ordered the review of the tax policy.[104]

In December 2008, an Alaska state commission recommended increasing the governor's annual salary from $125,000 to $150,000. Palin said that she would not accept the pay raise.[105] In response, the commission dropped the recommendation.[106]

In her State of the State address on January 17, 2008, Palin declared that the people of Alaska "can and must continue to develop our economy, because we cannot and must not rely so heavily on federal government [funding]."[107] Alaska's federal congressional representatives cut back on pork-barrel project requests during Palin's time as governor.[108]

While the state has no sales tax or income tax, royalty revenues from the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field (consisting mostly of state-owned lands) have supported large state budgets since 1980. The exact amounts have depended on the prevailing price of petroleum. As a result, state revenues doubled to $10 billion in 2008. Despite this, for the 2009 state budget, Palin gave a list of 31 proposed federal earmarks or requests for funding, totaling $197 million, to Alaska's senior U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. This was a major decrease from earlier years.[109][110] Palin has said that her decreasing support for federal funding was a source of friction between her and the state's congressional delegation; Palin requested less in federal funding each year than her predecessor Frank Murkowski requested in his last year.[111]

Palin visiting Ketchikan during her gubernatorial campaign, 2006

In 2002, it was proposed that a for-profit prison corporation, Cornell Corrections, build a prison on the island. To connect the island with Ketchikan, it was originally planned that the federal government spend $175 million on building a bridge to the island and another $75 million to connect it to the power grid with an electrical intertie. The Ketchikan Borough Assembly turned the proposal down when the administration of Governor Tony Knowles also expressed its disfavor to the idea. Eventually, the corporation's prison plans led to the exposure of the wide-ranging Alaska political corruption probe, which eventually ensnared U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. The bridge idea persisted through the administration of former U.S. Senator and then-governor Frank Murkowski. The 2005 Highway Bill provided for $223m to build the Gravina Island Bridge between Gravina Island and nearby Ketchikan, on Revillagigedo Island. The provisions and earmarks[112] were negotiated by Alaska's Rep. Don Young, who chaired the House Transportation Committee, and were supported by the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Alaska's Senator Stevens.[113] This bridge, nicknamed "The Bridge to Nowhere" by critics, was intended to replace the auto ferry, which is currently the only connection between Ketchikan and its airport. While the federal earmark was withdrawn after meeting opposition from Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, the state of Alaska still received $300 million in transportation funding,[113] with which the state of Alaska continued to study improvements in access to the airport, which could conceivably include improvements to the ferry service.[114] In 2006, Palin had run for governor with a "build-the-bridge" plank in her platform,[115] saying she would "not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project ... into something that's so negative."[116] Palin criticized the use of the word "nowhere" as insulting to local residents[115][117] and urged speedy work on building the infrastructure "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."[117] Despite the demise of the bridge proposal, Palin spent $26 million in transportation funding for the planned 3-mile access road on the island that ultimately served little use.[118][119] A spokesman for Alaska's Department of Transportation said that it had been within Palin's power to cancel the road project but noted the state was considering cheaper designs to complete the bridge project, and that in any case the road would open up the surrounding lands for development.[115][120] As governor, Palin canceled the Gravina Island Bridge in September 2007, saying that Congress had "little interest in spending any more money" due to "inaccurate portrayals of the projects."[121] Alaska did not return the $442 million in federal transportation funds.[122]

In 2008, as a vice-presidential candidate, Palin characterized her position as having told Congress "thanks, but no thanks, on that bridge to nowhere." A number of Ketchikan residents said that the claim was false and a betrayal of Palin's previous support for their community.[122] Some critics said that her statement was misleading, as she had expressed support for the spending project and kept the federal money after the project was canceled.[123]

In August 2008, Palin signed a bill authorizing the State of Alaska to award TransCanada Pipelines—the sole bidder to meet the state's requirements—a license to build and operate a pipeline to transport natural gas from the Alaska North Slope to the continental United States through Canada.[124] The governor also pledged $500 million in seed money to support the project.[125]

It was estimated that the project would cost $26 billion.[124] Newsweek described the project as "the principal achievement of Sarah Palin's term as Alaska's governor."[126] The pipeline also faces legal challenges from Canadian First Nations.[126]

In 2007, Palin supported a 2003 Alaska Department of Fish and Game policy allowing the hunting of wolves from the air as part of a predator control program intended to increase moose and caribou populations for subsistence-food gatherers and other hunters.[127][128] In March 2007, the department offered a bounty of $150 per wolf would be paid to the 180 volunteer pilots and gunners in five areas of Alaska to offset fuel costs. In the preceding four years, 607 wolves had been killed. State biologists wanted 382 to 664 wolves to be killed by the end of the predator-control season in April 2007. Wildlife activists sued the state- A state judge declared the bounty illegal on the basis that a bounty would have to be offered by the Board of Game and not by the Department of Fish and Game.[127][129] On August 26, 2008, Alaskans voted against ending the state's predator control program.[130]

Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on July 11, 2008, citing performance-related issues, such as not being "a team player on budgeting issues"[131] and "egregious rogue behavior."[132] Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein said that the "last straw" was Monegan's planned trip to Washington, D.C., to seek funding for a new, multimillion-dollar sexual assault initiative the governor hadn't yet approved.[133]

Monegan said that he had resisted persistent pressure from Palin, her husband, and her staff, including state Attorney General Talis J. Colberg, to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten; Wooten was involved in a child custody battle with Palin's sister after a bitter divorce that included an alleged death threat against Palin's father.[134][135] At one point Sarah and Todd Palin hired a private investigator to gather information, seeking to have Wooten officially disciplined.[136] Monegan stated that he learned an internal investigation had found all but two of the allegations to be unsubstantiated, and Wooten had been disciplined for the others – an illegal moose killing and the tasering of his 11-year-old stepson, who had reportedly asked to be tasered.[135] He told the Palins that there was nothing he could do because the matter was closed.[137] When contacted by the press for comment, Monegan first acknowledged pressure to fire Wooten but said that he could not be certain that his own firing was connected to that issue;[135] he later asserted that the dispute over Wooten was a major reason for his firing.[138] Palin stated on July 17 that Monegan was not pressured to fire Wooten, nor dismissed for not doing so.[131][137]

Monegan said the subject of Wooten came up when he invited Palin to a birthday party for his cousin, state senator Lyman Hoffman, in February 2007 during the legislative session in Juneau. "As we were walking down the stairs in the capitol building she wanted to talk to me about her former brother-in-law," Monegan said. "I said, 'Ma'am, I need to keep you at arm's length with this. I can't deal about him with you.[139] She said, 'OK, that's a good idea.'"[135]

Palin said there was "absolutely no pressure ever put on Commissioner Monegan to hire or fire anybody, at any time. I did not abuse my office powers. And I don't know how to be more blunt and candid and honest, but to tell you that truth. To tell you that no pressure was ever put on anybody to fire anybody." Todd Palin gave a similar account.[140]

On August 13, she acknowledged that a half dozen members of her administration had made more than two dozen calls on the matter to various state officials. "I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it", she said.[137][139][141] Palin said, "Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction."[131][142]

Chuck Kopp, whom Palin had appointed to replace Monegan as public safety commissioner, received a $10,000 state severance package after he resigned following just two weeks on the job. Kopp, the former Kenai chief of police, resigned July 25 following disclosure of a 2005 sexual harassment complaint and letter of reprimand against him. Monegan said that he did not receive a severance package from the state.[131]

On August 1, 2008, the Alaska Legislature hired an investigator, Stephen Branchflower, to review the Monegan dismissal. Legislators stated that Palin had the legal authority to fire Monegan, but they wanted to know whether her action had been motivated by anger at Monegan for not firing Wooten.[143] The atmosphere was bipartisan and Palin pledged to cooperate.[143][144] Wooten remained employed as a state trooper.[136] She placed an aide on paid leave due to a tape-recorded phone conversation that she deemed improper, in which the aide, appearing to act on her behalf, complained to a trooper that Wooten had not been fired.[145]

Several weeks after the start of what the media referred to as "troopergate", Palin was chosen as John McCain's running mate.[143] On September 1, Palin asked the legislature to drop its investigation, saying that the state Personnel Board had jurisdiction over ethics issues.[146] The Personnel Board's three members were first appointed by Palin's predecessor, and Palin reappointed one member in 2008.[147] On September 19, Todd Palin and several state employees refused to honor subpoenas, the validity of which were disputed by Talis Colberg, Palin's appointee as Alaska's attorney general.[148] On October 2, a court rejected Colberg's challenge to the subpoenas,[149] and seven of the witnesses, not including Todd Palin, eventually testified.[150]

On October 10, 2008, the Alaska Legislative Council unanimously voted to release, without endorsing,[151] the Branchflower Report, in which investigator Stephen Branchflower found that firing Monegan "was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority," but that Palin abused her power as governor and violated the state's Executive Branch Ethics Act when her office pressured Monegan to fire Wooten.[152] The report stated that "Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."[153] The report also said that Palin "permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor's office [...] to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired."[153][154]

Palin's attorneys condemned the Branchflower Report as "misleading and wrong on the law"[155] and an attempt to "smear the governor by innuendo."[156] The day after the report was released, Palin said she was "very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing" or "any kind of unethical activity."[157]

The bipartisan State of Alaska Personnel Board reviewed the matter at Palin's request.[158] On September 15, the Anchorage law firm of Clapp, Peterson, Van Flein, Tiemessen & Thorsness filed arguments of "no probable cause" with the Personnel Board on behalf of Palin.[159][160] The Personnel Board retained independent counsel Timothy Petumenos as an investigator. On October 24, Palin gave three hours of depositions with the Personnel Board in St. Louis, Missouri.[161] On November 3, 2008, the State of Alaska Personnel Board reported that there was no probable cause to believe that Palin or any other state official had violated state ethical standards.[162][163][164][165][166] The report further stated that the Branchflower Report used the wrong statute in reaching its conclusions, misconstrued the available evidence and did not consider or obtain all of the material evidence required to properly reach findings in the matter.[162]

As governor of Alaska, Palin's job approval rating ranged from a high of 93% in May 2007 to a low of 54% in May 2009.[167]

On July 3, 2009, Palin announced that she would not run for reelection in the 2010 Alaska gubernatorial election and would resign before the end of the month. Palin stated that since August 2008, both she and the state had been spending an "insane" amount of time and money ($2.5 million) responding to "opposition research", 150 FOIA requests and 15 "frivolous" legal ethics complaints filed by "political operatives" against her.[177][178][179] She said her resignation was also influenced by her desire not to be a lame duck.[179]

Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell said that Palin's decision to resign was driven by the high cost of legal fees against ethics investigations; Palin and her husband Todd personally incurred more than $500,000 in legal expenses.[177] Parnell became governor on July 26, 2009, in an inaugural ceremony in Fairbanks, upon Palin's resignation taking effect.[180]

In December 2010, new rules governing Alaska executive branch ethics, stemming from Palin's tenure as governor, took effect.[181] "These include allowing for the state to pay legal costs for officials cleared of ethics violations; (and) allowing for a family member of the governor or lieutenant governor to travel at state cost in certain circumstances ..."[181]

On January 27, 2009, Palin formed the political action committee, SarahPAC.[234][235] Michael Glassner, a former aide to Palin, was appointed as the chief of staff of SarahPAC.[236] The organization, which describes itself as an advocate of energy independence,[237] supports candidates for federal and state office.[238] Following her resignation as governor, Palin stated her intention to campaign "on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation."[239] It was reported that SarahPAC had raised nearly $1,000,000.[240] A legal defense fund was set up to help Palin challenge ethics complaints, and it had collected approximately $250,000 by mid July 2009.[240][241] In June 2010, Palin's defense fund was ruled illegal and was required to pay back $386,856 it collected in donations because it used Palin's position as governor to raise money for her personal gain. Palin subsequently set up a new defense fund.[242] Sarah PAC was terminated as of December 31, 2016.[243]

In the wake of the January 8, 2011, shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Palin faced criticism for her SarahPAC website's inclusion of a political graphic that included a crosshair[244] over Giffords's district. Palin responded on her Facebook page to the criticism, saying, "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them", equating the accusations of her role in the shooting to a "blood libel".[245][246][247]

Palin on the campaign trail in 2008

In November 2009, Palin released her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, in which she details her private and political career, including her resignation as Governor of Alaska. Palin said she took the title from the phrase 'gone rogue' used by McCain staffers to describe her behavior when she spoke her mind on the issues during the campaign.[248] The subtitle, "An American Life," mirrors the title of President Ronald Reagan's 1990 autobiography.[249] Less than two weeks after its release, sales of the book exceeded the one million mark, with 300,000 copies sold the first day. Its bestseller rankings were comparable to memoirs by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.[250][251][252]

Palin traveled to 11 states in a bus, with her family accompanying her, to promote the book. She made a number of media appearances as well, including a widely publicized interview on November 16, 2009, with Oprah Winfrey.[253] In November 2010 HarperCollins released Palin's second book, titled America by Heart.[254][255][256] The book contains excerpts from Palin's favorite speeches, sermons and literature as well as portraits of people Palin admires, including some she met in rural America on her first book tour.[254]

On February 6, 2010, Palin was the keynote speaker at the first Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Palin said the Tea Party movement is "the future of politics in America."[257] She criticized Obama for rising deficits, and for "apologizing for America" in speeches in other countries. Palin said Obama was weak on the War on Terror for allowing the so-called Christmas bomber to board a plane headed for the United States.[258]

Palin addressing a Labor Day rally sponsored by the Tea Party Express (Manchester, NH), 2011

In 2011, Palin was the keynote speaker at an annual tax day tea party rally at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group headquartered in Arlington, Virginia,[259] and a featured speaker at a Tea Party Express rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, at which Palin urged members of the Tea Party movement to avoid internal bickering with Establishment Republicans.[260][261]

In mid-2010, Palin positioned herself as a champion of conservative Republican women, calling for a "whole stampede of pink elephants" in the 2010 midterm elections.[262] She endorsed a number of female Republican candidates in primary elections,[263] including Karen Handel, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Georgia in the 2010 election.[264] Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the House Democratic campaign operation, called her involvement in various U.S. House campaigns a "great thing across the board".[265] She spoke at a May 2010 fundraiser for the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion political advocacy group and political action committee that supports pro-life women in politics, in which she coined the term "mama grizzly".[266][267] Palin endorsed Nikki Haley for the Republican nomination for Governor of South Carolina three weeks before the election. At the time of the endorsement, Haley was polling last among Republicans; she ended up winning the nomination and general election.[268]

In the months ahead of the November 2010 elections, Palin endorsed 64 Republican candidates,[269] and was a significant fundraising asset to those she campaigned for during the primary season.[270] According to Politico, Palin's criteria for endorsing candidates was whether they had the support of the Tea Party movement and the support of the Susan B. Anthony List.[271] In terms of success, Palin was 7–2 for Senate endorsements; 7–6 for House endorsements; and 6–3 in endorsements of gubernatorial candidates in races that were considered 'competitive'.[272] Palin's endorsement of Joe Miller in the August 24 Alaska primary election for U.S. Senator was identified as a pivotal moment in Miller's upset of the incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski.[273][274] After losing the Republican Party primary to Miller, Murkowski ran as a write-in candidate, defeating both Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams in the general election, winning with a plurality. This made her only the second U.S. Senator, the first write-in candidate to be elected since Strom Thurmond in the United States Senate election in South Carolina, 1954.[275] According to The Daily Beast reporter Shushannah Walshe, Christine O'Donnell's unlikely prospects of upsetting establishment Republican candidate Mike Castle "changed overnight" due to Palin's endorsement. O'Donnell defeated Castle in the September 14 primary for Joe Biden's former Senate seat in Delaware.[276] Her O'Donnell endorsement further increased tensions between Palin and the Republican establishment: leading conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer described the endorsement as "reckless and irresponsible".[277] In 2010, former congressman and influential TV host Joe Scarborough urged his party to dissociate itself from her.[278] Party strategist Karl Rove argued that it may have been Palin's endorsement of O'Donnell that ultimately cost the GOP the Delaware Senate seat.[279] Commentators including Politico's Ben Smith posited that Palin's support of O'Donnell contributed to dashing Republican hopes of regaining control of the U.S. Senate.[280] Another Palin endorsement carried Nevada's Sharron Angle to a 40.1% primary win,[281] in the race to beat highly endangered incumbent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but the controversial Angle's nomination sank those chances. Reid prevailed 50.3% to 44.6% in the 2010 election, despite his losing 14 of Nevada's 17 counties.[282][283] Angle had led by as much as 11% in March and June Rasmussen polling.[284][285]

Palin's influence over the primaries nonetheless further increased speculation that she would seek to be the party's nominee for president in 2012,[286] with political pundits such as David Frum and Jonathan Chait identifying Palin as the front-runner.[287][288]

Palin speaking at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland

Beginning in November 2008, following Palin's high profile in the presidential campaign, an active "Draft Palin" movement started.[289] On February 6, 2010, when asked on Fox News whether she would run for president in 2012, she replied, "I would be willing to if I believe that it's right for the country."[290] She added, "I won't close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future."[291]

In November 2010 Palin confirmed that she was considering running for the Presidency and was "having that discussion with my family". She said she realised her level of experience could cause problems with winning the nomination and criticized the "lamestream media" for focusing attention on her personal life.[292]

In March 2011, Palin and her husband toured India at the invitation of Indian newsmagazine India Today,[293] subsequently visiting Israel.[294] During the tour she was asked about her future candidacy; she said, "I don't think there needs to be a rush to get out there as a declared candidate. It's a life-changing decision."[295] In response to another question, she said, "It's time that a woman is president of the United States of America."[296]

In 2011 Palin said the home she had recently purchased in Scottsdale, Arizona, was not a full-time residence,[297] and denied that she was planning to run for the Arizona Senate seat of the retiring Jon Kyl.[298] On October 5, 2011, Palin said she had decided not to seek the Republican nomination for president.[299]

Palin speaking at the 2015 CPAC in National Harbor

In October 2014, Palin endorsed the "unity ticket" of Independent Bill Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott in the 2014 Alaska gubernatorial election, which ran against her successor and former lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell.[300] The endorsement was prompted by Parnell's oil-and-gas industry tax-cuts, which dismantled her administration's "Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share" (ACES) plan. She had previously supported a referendum to repeal the tax cuts, which was narrowly defeated in August 2014.[301] Walker and Mallott made the repeal of the tax cuts a centerpiece of their campaign.[302] Walker and Mallott won the governorship in the November 2014 election with 48.1 percent of the vote, versus 45.9 percent for the Republican ticket.[303]

In January 2016 Palin endorsed Donald Trump.[304] The political director of Trump's campaign, Michael Glassner had been an aide to Palin while she was governor and also the chief of staff of her political action committee SarahPAC.[305]

In a May 2016 interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Palin said she would work to defeat Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Palin cited Ryan's reluctance to support Trump for president.[306] In early August, Palin said again that she supported Paul Nehlen, a little-known Republican challenger to Ryan, despite Trump's support of Ryan.[307] A few days later, Ryan overwhelmingly defeated Nehlen in the Republican primary, taking over 84 percent of the vote.[308]

In June 2017, Palin filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for an editorial accusing Palin of "political incitement" in the run-up to the 2011 shooting of Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, claiming a link to an advertisement from Palin's political action committee—which showed stylized crosshairs against the congressional districts held by 20 Democrats, including Giffords.[309][310] The Times later issued a correction stating that "no such link was established" between the advertisement and the shooting and clarifying that what was depicted in the crosshairs in the ads were "electoral districts, not individual Democratic lawmakers." The Times wrote that the error did not "undercut or weaken the argument of the piece."[309] In subsequent testimony at an evidentiary hearing, Times editorial page editor James Bennet stated that the editorial sought to make a point about heated political rhetoric and was not intended to blame Palin for the attack on Giffords.[311]

Palin's lawsuit was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in August 2017. Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled that Palin had failed to show actual malice (which, under the landmark case of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, is the standard that a defamation plaintiff who is a public figure must show). Rakoff wrote: "What we have here is an editorial, written and rewritten rapidly in order to voice an opinion on an immediate event of importance, in which are included a few factual inaccuracies somewhat pertaining to Mrs. Palin that are very rapidly corrected. Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not."[311] In August 2019, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated Palin's suit, ruling that the district court erred when it held an evidentiary hearing on the newspaper's motion to dismiss, rather than deciding the newspaper's motion to dismiss on the pleadings.[312] In August 2020, Rakoff denied both sides' motions for summary judgment and ordered a jury trial in the libel suit.[313][314] As the first libel case against the New York Times to go to trial in the U.S. in 18 years,[315] the suit was closely watched among First Amendment scholars.[315][316] The trial was initially set to begin in January 2022,[317] but was delayed after Palin tested positive for COVID-19.[316] On February 15, 2022, the jury of nine members reached a unanimous verdict in favor of The New York Times, finding that Palin had not proven actual malice.[318] Jurors were aware that the previous day Rakoff said he would dismiss the case regardless of their verdict after some jurors had received push notifications on their smart phones, though jurors said it did not affect their deliberations.[319]

After the death of Alaska's at-large congressman Don Young, Palin ran in the 2022 special election for the vacated congressional seat.[320] In August 2021, Palin had hinted at a possible Senate bid, challenging incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski.[321][322] On April 3, 2022, former president Donald Trump endorsed her run for the House of Representatives.[323]

Palin was one of the three remaining of 50 initial candidates in the 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election.[324] Al Gross, an independent, dropped out of the "top four" runoff, leaving two Republicans remaining, Palin and Nick Begich III, along with Democratic ex-state house member Mary Peltola.[325]

Palin lost the special election to Mary Peltola following counting on August 31. She received 58,328 votes (30.9%) in the first round, and 85,987 votes (48.5%) once Nick Begich's second preferences had been transferred.[326]

After she lost the race to fill the remainder of Young's term, Palin urged Nick Begich to drop out of the November election for the two-year term, but he refused to do so.[327] She later lost the general election in November by an even larger margin, receiving 25.7% of the vote in the first round to Peltola's 48.8%, then 45% in the second round, to Peltola's 55%.

Palin opposed the 2010 health care reform package, saying it would lead to rationing of health care by a bureaucracy, which she described using the term "death panels". This legislation is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as modified by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[329] She also opposes abortion, including in cases of rape, incest, and embryonic stem cell research, but supports it if the mother's life is in jeopardy.[330] She supports parental consent as a requirement for female minors seeking an abortion.[331]

Palin opposes same-sex marriage[332] and supports capital punishment.[333] She has also called marijuana use a "minimal issue" and suggested that arresting cannabis users should be a low priority for local police. Although she opposes full legalization, she admits to smoking marijuana recreationally when it was legal in Alaska.[334]

Palin supports sex education in public schools that encourages sexual abstinence along with teaching about contraception.[335] She also supports discussion of creationism during lessons on evolution in public schools.[336] Palin believes evolution "should be taught as an accepted principle" and said that her belief in God's role in Earth's creation "is not part of the state policy or a local curriculum in a school district. Science should be taught in science class."[337] (See Creation–evolution controversy.)

A Life Member of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA),[338] Palin interprets the Second Amendment as including the right to handgun possession and opposes bans on semi-automatic assault weapons.[339] She supports gun safety education for youth.[340]

Palin supports off-shore drilling, and land-based drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.[90][341] When commenting on the Gulf Coast oil disaster Palin said, "I repeat the slogan 'drill here, drill now.'"[342] She said, "I want our country to be able to trust the oil industry."[343] Palin asked supporters to read an article by Thomas Sowell that criticized Obama for having BP pay to an escrow fund.[344]

Palin considers herself a conservationist[345] and during the 2008 campaign said "of global warming, climate change, whether it's entirely, wholly caused by man's activities or is part of the cyclical nature of our planet...John McCain and I agree that we have to make sure that we're doing all we can to cut down on pollution."[346] She opposed cap-and-trade proposals contained in the yet to be defeated ACES energy bill.[347] Speaking at a 2009 Department of Interior hearing, Palin acknowledged that "many believe" a global effort to reduce greenhouse gases is needed. She stated, "[S]topping domestic energy production of preferred fuels does not solve the issues associated with global warming and threatened or endangered species, but it can make them worse... These available fuels are required to supply the nation's energy needs during the transition to green energy alternatives."[348] After the election and the Climatic Research Unit email controversy, Palin spoke at a 2010 California logging conference calling studies supporting the scientific consensus on climate change "snake oil science". She attacked what she called "heavy-handed" environmental laws and cited her 2008 suit, as Alaska's governor, against the federal government to overturn the listing of polar bears as a threatened species. She considered environmental regulations as an economic burden to businesses trying to recover from the recession and environmental activists as wanting to "lock up the land".[345]

Palin (red shirt) in Kuwait, July 26, 2007

Palin is a strong supporter of Israel.[349][350] Referring to Iran's threat to Israel, Palin said Obama would be reelected if "he played the war card. Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do."[351]

On foreign policy, Palin supported the George W. Bush administration's policies in Iraq, but was concerned that "dependence on foreign energy" may be obstructing efforts to "have an exit plan in place".[352][353] Palin supports preemptive military action in the face of an imminent threat, and supports U.S. military operations in Pakistan. She also supported the surge strategy in Iraq, the use of additional ground forces in Afghanistan, and, in general, maintaining a strong defensive posture by increasing the defense budget.[354]

Palin opposed the Obama administration's proposed 2013 military intervention in Syrian Civil War, suggesting to let "Allah sort it out" in the Syrian Civil War.[355]

In 2008, Palin supported NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia,[356] and affirms that if Russia invaded a NATO member, the United States should meet its treaty obligations.[357] However, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Palin advocated for a reduction in U.S. military aid to Ukraine and criticized U.S. involvement in the conflict.[358]

Palin opposed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which placed limits on Iran's nuclear program, on the grounds that the treaty was not strict enough. In a September 9, 2015, speech, she said, "Only in an Orwellian Obama world full of sparkly fairy dust blown from atop his unicorn as he's peeking through a pretty pink kaleidoscope would he ever see victory or safety for America or Israel in this treaty."[359]