Alaska's special election House race...Sarah Palin (Republican) vs. Mary Peltola (Democrat)

[AgnosticBoy]

On August 16, 2022, there was a special election held to replace Congressmen Don Young who recently died. Here's an article when the race was heating up:

Alaska's U.S. House seat is open for the first time in 49 years, after the death in March of Congesssman Don Young. Palin is one of 48 candidates seeking to serve the remainder of his term. Many of them, including Palin, are also running for the next full term, which starts in January.

April 2022, NPR article

It seemed that Republican side had a clear advantage in that Alaska is a red state, and there was a popular Republican candidate running, and she was also backed by former president Trump. However, the results of that election were announced on August 31, and Sarah Palin lost. Democrat Mary Peltola won the race.

For Debate:
1. What's your thoughts on this race? Any idea why Sarah Palin lost despite her popularity in a red state?
2. Is this Republican lost an indication of a larger problem that Republicans will have in the 2022 midterm elections?

 

[AgnosticBoy]

I thought I was going to find information that showed that abortion rights played a role since that is a lot of what the mainstream media seems to be focused on as a factor. But that may not be the issue, given this statistic:

In a survey about three years after Palin resigned from the governor's office, Anchorage pollster Ivan Moore said, more than half of Alaskans had a negative view of her.

"We asked them why, and 'quit,' 'quitter' — all the way down, every other comment was 'quit' or 'quitter,'" Moore said.

Moore asked Alaskans again in October whether they have a positive or negative view of Palin.

"Her positive-negative came back at 31 positive, 56 negative. So that's the immediate problem," said Moore, who previously did work for other candidates in the race.

Source: NPR

Sarah Palin has a high negative rating so she's not as popular as I thought. I'm sure that played a role. Well, it was that, and I also think her Democrat opponent would appeal to Republicans and independents based on this NON-partisan reaction she had here: