(PresidentialWire.com)- Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is one of 48 candidates running in the special election to replace Republican Congressman Don Young who died last month.
When she entered the race, critics dismissed Palin, claiming her candidacy was just the latest in a long string of headline-grabbing stunts. Alaska residents wrote into the state’s largest paper calling on voters to reject her, with many arguing that she quit her job as governor of the state.
In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Palin dismissed her critics’ complaints, arguing that her commitment to Alaska has never wavered and those who would suggest otherwise “don’t know me.”
Palin said hers is a serious campaign for the House and it isn’t a “launching pad for anything else.”
Palin told the AP that, unlike most freshman lawmakers, she could talk to “any reporter” or appear on any news program she wanted to just by picking up the phone, “and it would be all about Alaska.”
She said by running for Congress, she is “applying for a job” and asking the people of Alaska to hire her. And if they hire her, she said, she would do “a good job” and she wouldn’t back down.
In opening her Anchorage campaign office last Wednesday, Palin told reporters that she plans to “stick with the issues” and the plans she has for Alaska. She said her priority if elected would be to tap into the state’s vast natural resources to bring jobs to Alaskans.
The June 11 special primary will be Alaska’s first statewide vote-by-mail election. The top four candidates of the 48 will advance to an August 16 special election where ranked-choice voting will be used. The winner will serve out the remainder of Don Young’s term which expires in January.
There will also be an August primary for the November midterm election to determine who will serve the new 2-year term that begins in January. Sarah Palin is one of 16 candidates who have so far filed for the August primary.
Read the full report at the Associated Press HERE.
