Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
When Sarah Palin launched a campaign for Congress in Alaska earlier this year, her comeback bid seemed to promise a fresh supply of wacky antics from the former vice presidential pick who emerged from a decade in the political wilderness.
What Palin’s return did not obviously promise was the most surprising Democratic upset of the 2022 election cycle so far.
But that’s exactly what happened last month, when Mary Peltola—who campaigned as a “pro-jobs, pro-choice, pro-fish, and pro-family” Democrat—won an upset victory in the special election to serve the rest of the late Rep. Don Young’s term. She beat out both Palin and Nick Begich, a scion of a famous Alaska Democratic family who ran as a conservative upstart.