Sarah Palin Has Had Quite The Transformation
Few modern-day politicians have transformed from relative unknowns to world-famous game changers as quickly, or as controversially, as Sarah Palin. The proud Republican spent the first decade of her career as a big fish in a rather small pond — the Alaskan city of Wasilla — before being elected the state's governor. But out of nowhere, she was plucked from obscurity to become John McCain's vice presidential running mate. And boy, did she make an impression.
In fact, you couldn't turn on the television or read a newspaper during the 2008 general election without seeing the Tina Fey lookalike beaming right back at you, usually with an attention-grabbing soundbite to boot. And Palin has continued to mix things up since her rapid rise to notoriety, reinventing herself as a reality TV star, commentator, and even masked singer (twice) while simultaneously making frequent attempts to extend her political legacy. Here's a look at her remarkable story.
Sarah Palin thrived in high school
There was little in Sarah Palin's upbringing to suggest that she'd later become such a key political figure. She was born in the Idaho city of Sandpoint in 1964 to a school secretary mother, Sally Heath, and a science teacher father, Chuck Heath. She did, however, show her prowess as a sportswoman from an early age, particularly after the family moved from Skagway, Alaska to the town of Wasilla.
For example, while studying at Wasilla High in the early 1980s, Palin served as point guard of the state championship-winning basketball team where she was nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda." Yes, even as a teen, the future governor was super competitive. She was appointed head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and was a member of the cross-country team, too.
In another early sign of her political persuasions, Palin also began hunting from a young age, and has become a National Rifle Association lifetime member. She also enjoyed spending much of her childhood on a snowmobile. Victory at the 1984 Miss Wasilla beauty pageant, meanwhile, further proved that she was a young woman of many talents.
She had a stop-start higher education
You could say that Sarah Palin was something of a nomad when it came to her education. Following her high school graduation in 1982, Sarah Palin reportedly landed a place at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. But in the first of many moves, she soon decided to transfer to Honolulu's Hawaii Pacific University for just a semester.
In 1983, Palin enrolled at North Idaho College before once again transferring, this time to the University of Idaho for a spell, which was interrupted by a stint at Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna College. The future politician finally graduated in 1987 with a communications degree.
Perhaps because of her tendency to move around, Palin failed to make any impression on the teaching staff at her final institution. In fact, no one from the University of Idaho appears to remember her, with journalism program director Roy Atwood telling Oregon Live, "I wish I could say that I knew something about her, but I just don't." The School of Journalism and Mass Media director Kenton Bird, meanwhile, stated that the Republican didn't contribute to The Argonaut college newspaper or campus TV station KIUI, either.
She married her high school sweetheart
Sarah Palin was supported throughout her remarkable rise to political fame, and some would say political infamy, by a man she first started dating back in high school. Yes, there's few things more conservative than marrying your teenage sweetheart, and the Republican vice presidential nominee did just that in 1988 when she walked down the aisle with Todd Palin.
Todd earned a living running the commercial fishing business owned by his family before landing a position with BP's processing facility at Prudhoe Bay. In order to prevent any arguments over conflict of interest, the part-Yup'ik decided to step down from the latter position when Sarah also stepped down as governor of Alaska in 2009.
Todd largely managed to keep out of the spotlight, even when his wife regularly started making international headlines. But in 2019, he found himself on the front pages when he filed for divorce after 31 years of marriage. In paperwork submitted to Anchorage Superior Court, his reasons were cited as "incompatibility of temperament" and that the couple found it "impossible to live together as husband and wife."
Sarah Palin became a mother-of-five
Sarah Palin and then-husband Todd Palin first became parents in 1989 with the birth of Track Palin. After welcoming daughters Bristol and Willow Palin into the world in 1990 and 1994, respectively, the couple appeared to have completed their family unit. But seven years later, they had a fourth child, Piper Palin, and then in 2008 they had another, Trig Palin. And it's fair to say that their brood has almost created as many headlines.
Track, in particular, has repeatedly found himself in hot water. In 2017, for example, he was reported to have broken into the family home and assaulted his father while inebriated. The year previously, he was arrested following a physical altercation with his then-partner Jordan Lowe, and a year later, he was charged with domestic violence and resisting arrest after an incident at his Wasilla home. The army veteran ended up spending a year in custody for the latter.
Bristol, meanwhile, courted controversy by appearing on MTV's "Teen Mom," although she soon left the franchise after stating on Instagram, "[W]alking away from this show allows God to rebuild me (and my little fam) in the right direction." After falling pregnant with son Tripp at the age of just 17, the reality star ended up in a bitter custody battle with the baby's father, Levi Johnston.
Sarah Palin gets political
Following brief spells working for Anchorage's KTVA-TV and KTUU-TV as a sportscaster, Sarah Palin took a major pivot into the political realm. In 1992, she was elected to the Wasilla City Council thanks to a campaign centered on opposing an increase in taxes. And within four years, she'd been voted in as the same town's mayor, dethroning John Stein, the incumbent.
During her two three-year terms in the position, Palin set the blueprint for much of her political career, campaigning for gun rights and against abortion. She was also said to have taken greater control of the city's budgets and stuck to her earlier word by reducing property taxes while also using a hike in city sales tax to both improve public safety and give the green flag to a brand-new sports center.
In 1999, Palin's political career received a further boost when she was elected the Alaska Conference of Mayors' president. And by the time she vacated her seat in 2002, the Republican had ambitions that extended far beyond the Alaskan city.
The statewide campaign
In 2002, Sarah Palin started to make waves outside her Anchorage hometown with a bid to become the Republican party's nomination for lieutenant governor. Admittedly, she wasn't successful, losing the campaign by around 2,000 votes – but that certainly didn't stop her from pursuing her dreams of global domination.
A year later, Palin was appointed by Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski to become the Oil and Gas Conservation Committee's Commission chair. And although this position wasn't a direct route to the political elite — she quit in 2004 after protesting against the ethics of the state's Republican leaders — it still gave her the kind of experience she needed for her next challenge.
That would come in 2006 when she defeated Murkowski in the Republican primary for Governor. That same year, she emerged triumphant in the general election with victory over Democrat Tony Knowles, making her the first female governor in Alaskan history as well as the youngest. It didn't take long for Palin to renege on one of her promises, though. Having promised an isolated part of the state a $400 million bridge, she then cast the idea off once she got into power.
The 'Joan of Arc of Alaska politics'
Dubbed by the Anchorage Daily News as the "Joan of Arc of Alaska politics," Sarah Palin certainly made an impression during her stint as the state's governor. But for the more liberal side of her community, it wasn't a favorable one. Palin advocated for a banning of same-sex marriage, and supported pro-life legislation as well as the teaching of creationism in the school curriculum. She also questioned the validity of global warming and the research of embryonic stem cells, while finding herself in trouble with the law, too.
Indeed, in 2008, an independent investigator was hired by the Alaska Legislature to look into the sacking of Walt Monegan, a Public Safety Commissioner. The latter had argued that he'd been fired because of his refusal to let go of Palin's ex-brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten. The University of Idaho graduate insisted that she was innocent of any misdemeanor, arguing that Monegan was guilty of "egregious rogue behavior."
But a subsequent report found that her own conduct had been a violation of Alaska's ethics act and abuse of power. Little did America know, however, that pretty soon Palin would be spreading her brand of chaos across the entire country.
John McCain's running mate
Much to everyone's surprise, Sarah Palin was plucked from relative obscurity in 2008 to become John McCain's vice presidential running mate in time for the general election. As a result, she once again broke new ground, becoming the first woman from a Republican party to achieve such a position. And the Alaska governor soon made sure that everyone knew who she was.
Indeed, at the Republican convention in September that year, the ever-quotable Palin famously described herself as "just your average hockey mom," before adding, "the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick."
And just in case anyone was still uncertain about her tenacity, the politician told ABC News' Charlie Gibson exactly why she felt prepared for the role: "I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink."
The press got their claws out
Unfortunately for Sarah Palin, not everyone believed she was as prepared as she claimed, with many critics expressing concerns about her lack of foreign policy experience. The Washington Post, for example, commented that her first televised chat was "strikingly devoid of the diplomatic language generally used by U.S. officials when discussing relations with Russia."
Palin didn't exactly help herself, either, when she admitted that she'd waited until 2007 to make her first trip to Mexico and Canada, and that she hadn't ever come face-to-face with a foreign leader. The vice presidential running mate was also accused of contradicting herself on climate change when she appeared to accept that global warming could be a man-made issue having previously been something of a denier.
And then there was the car crash moment when she appeared to be confused by a question about the Bush doctrine. Further sticking the knife in, The New York Times remarked, "Granted, this might not be something that your average hockey mom would know, but it probably is something that a commander-in-chief-in-waiting might have considered."
Sarah Palin's comedic doppelganger
It wasn't just the news bulletins that Sarah Palin dominated as the presidential election campaigns of 2008 gathered steam. She also became a regular topic of conversation in the field of topical comedy. None more so than on "Saturday Night Live" where Tina Fey's pitch perfect impersonation of the governor became almost as famous as the real thing.
After Fey starred alongside Amy Poehler in a sketch titled "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Hillary Clinton," the vice presidential running mate told Fox News that she was able to see the funny side of being lampooned: "I watched with the volume all the way down and I thought it was hilarious. [...] I didn't hear a word she said, but the visual was spot on."
In fact, Palin was so amused that she agreed to appear alongside her convincing doppelganger on a later episode of the late-night institution. A month before the American public took to the polling booths, the politician joined Fey and Alec Baldwin in an opening routine based on a press conference and later appeared in the Weekend Update segment, too. And she had a whale of a time doing so, telling WWOR-TV, "It was the most welcoming and friendly environment that you could imagine. Everyone was so nice, and you know, you have to have a sense of humor through all of this."
Life after the election
Of course, John McCain's big gamble on Sarah Palin ultimately failed to pay off when Barack Obama was crowned the 44th President of the United States in November 2008. Nevertheless, the losing candidate paid tribute to his running mate, hailing her as "one of the best campaigners I've ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength."
Palin subsequently headed back to her home state and in the summer of 2009, resigned from her Alaskan governor position, citing everything from lawsuits to ethics complaints as her reasons. Many believed this development was a sign that she intended to run for the biggest seat in the White House three years later.
That same year, Palin founded her very own political committee, SarahPAC, and in 2010, she aligned herself with the Tea Party, throwing her support behind several midterm election candidates and speaking at its inaugural National Convention where she described the movement as the "future of politics in America."
Sarah Palin launches a media onslaught
Having regularly appeared on "Saturday Night Live" during her stint as John McCain's vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin was no stranger to flitting between the worlds of politics and entertainment, but she took her media onslaught to another level in the wake of her election defeat.
In 2010 alone, Palin was appointed as a Fox News Channel commentator, published her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life" and a follow-up, "America by Heart," and signed up to front her own TLC reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska," which pulled in a record-breaking five million viewers.
And then in 2014, Palin pulled the ultimate ego move, launching her very own online network named in honor of her good self. Unfortunately, the subscription-based The Sarah Palin Channel failed to pull in as many fans as her televised Alaskan jaunts, and within a year, the former governor decided that any new content would go on either her Facebook page or political committee's official website instead.
Sarah Palin returns to politics
Although Sarah Palin decided against running for presidency in 2012, she didn't completely give up her political ambitions. In 2022, she put her name forward for the congressional seat in the special election that had opened up by the death of Don Young. And having previously endorsed Donald Trump for his successful POTUS bid six years earlier, the 45th was more than happy to return the favor.
Palin made it to the final three where she squared off against fellow Republican Nick Begich II and Mary Peltola, a former Democratic state house member. Unfortunately for the one-time vice presidential running mate, she lost out to the latter.
"Though we're disappointed in this outcome, Alaskans know I'm the last one who'll ever retreat" Palin remarked (via CNN) after the results. "Instead, I'm going to reload. With optimism that Alaskans learn from this voting system mistake and correct it in the next election, let's work even harder to send an America First conservative to Washington in November." To add insult to injury, she also came a distant second to the same candidate in the aforementioned vote.
Sarah Palin the pop singer
Following the disappointment of her second election defeat in the space of just a few months, Sarah Palin once again tried to convince the public she had plenty of other strings to her bow. The general consensus, though, even among staunch Democrats, was "don't give up your day job."
Indeed, in 2024, Palin appeared on "We Are Family," the talent contest in which the studio audience must determine which disguised celebrity their "civilian" relative is performing with. The former governor of Alaska delivered an interesting rendition of "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks alongside cousin JD, who told host Anthony Anderson that the 2008 presidential election "was mind-boggling for our entire family."
Remarkably, this wasn't the first Fox singing contest that Palin went undercover on. Four years earlier, she'd cosplayed as a giant pink and purple bear on "The Masked Singer." But her run, which included an unlikely take on Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby's Got Back," was cut short. We therefore shouldn't be expecting the former politician to drop a debut album any time soon.