Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has blasted the state’s new “ranked-choice” voting system following her loss in the state’s first election conducted with this system. Palin and republican candidate Nick Begich had both lost to Democratic Candidate Mary.
The former governor released a statement this week as she lashed out at the voting system and her fellow republican candidate, Nick Begich. Palin claims Begich is to be faulted for costing the Republicans the Ione seat. She also told him to drop out of the race and cause no further harm as they are both supposed to face Peltola again in November.
According to the National Review, Palin said, “Nick Begich is now a three-time loser. His ego-driven insistence on staying in Alaska’s congressional race after repeatedly failing to garner a majority of Republican votes, while I have consistently won the vote, has just cost Republicans a seat in Congress. Fortunately, there is still time for Begich to do the honorable thing and withdraw before the November election.”
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) September 1, 2022
On the other hand, Begich claimed that the loss was more of Palin’s fault. He told National Review, “Sarah Palin’s unfavorables in the state of Alaska are so astronomically high, so high in fact, that the only other more unfavorably thought of politician in Alaska is Joe Biden.”
"*" indicates required fields
He added that the loss of the congress seat was solely Palin’s fault and insisted that she would not be able to win statewide in Alaska.
Furthermore, Begich asserted that though Trump backed Palin, she remained unpopular to the state’s voters, which made her unelectable. He added that her unpopularity is due to her “early resignation from the governorship, her pursuit of fame, and the monetization of her national notoriety immediately following her resignation.”
In addition, Begich accused Palin of urging the state’s voters not to rank candidates because she was only interested in her election without much consideration for her party. While Palin was allegedly doing this, Begich said he was doing the opposite and encouraging voters to rank candidates.
“Unfortunately, Sarah Palin instructed her supporters not to rank candidates, and this had a spill over effect across the electorate. I, on the other hand, ranked Sarah Palin second on my ballot and encouraged people to do the same.”
He added, “Either Sarah Palin doesn’t understand the ranked-choice voting system, or is more interested in herself getting elected than supporting other Republicans.”
Moving on, Palin has announced that her campaign will prepare and come back ready for the elections in November. She added that she hopes that Alaskans have seen that the voting system was just a lie sold to them by the democrats.
She concluded, “The people of Alaska do not want the destructive democrat agenda to rule our land and our lives, but that’s what resulted from someone’s experiment with this new crazy, convoluted, confusing ranked-choice voting system.”
