Sarah Palin is leading the polls in the special election for Alaska’s sole House seat, a new poll shows. But the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee continues to face significant hurdles in winning the seat.
Palin is among 48 candidates seeking to fill the remaining months of the term won by the late GOP Rep. Don Young in 2020. Young spent nearly 49 years in the House, the most of any Republican lawmaker, and at the time of his death last month was the dean of the chamber.
SARAH PALIN A FRONT-RUNNER IN ALASKA SPECIAL ELECTION, BUT PITFALLS ABOUND
The race to replace Young coincides with a major change to Alaska’s election rules. Rather than traditional party primaries and then a general election, the top four finishers on June 11 will go on to the next round, when ranked-choice voting is used.
Palin’s vast name recognition has given her an edge early on. According to a Must Read Alaska survey of nearly 1,000 Alaskans, Palin would pull 31% of the vote.
The poll for Must Read Alaska was conducted by Remington Research Strategies between Thursday and Saturday to a series of likely primary voters in Juneau, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The survey found independent candidate Al Gross with 26% and Republican Nick Begich with 21%. Democrat Christopher Constant rounded out the top four with 7%.
The top four vote-getters will be determined during the mail-in June 11 primary and advance to the nonpartisan general election in August, when ranked-choice voting will determine a winner with 51% support or more.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Palin shortly after she announced her candidacy, gaining her some additional support in the red-leaning state. Palin was the running mate for 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, the Arizona senator who died in 2018.
But Palin’s resignation from her first term as governor in 2009 didn’t impress many of her constituents and could prove to be a liability. Her opponent Begich chose this line of attack against her, telling the Washington Examiner in a statement last week that “most Alaskans remember her as someone who quit on Alaska while she was governor. Why should we trust her to not quit on Alaska now?”
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The same poll found that Gross, who was endorsed by the Democrats when he ran for Senate in 2020, also has a 51% disapproval rating.
