She was once the most popular and most vilified Republican in the party, even more so than the man she was playing second fiddle to in the 2008 presidential race, and now former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin may be making a return to politics once again.
During an interview with Eric Bolling on Newsmax’s “The Balance,” Palin was asked if she had any inclination to return to elected office, seeing as how she’s still a relatively popular individual.
“I would love to,” Palin told Bolling. “I would never say never.”
“I feel like there are still some offerings that I have in terms of a service heart, she continued. “I want to serve. I want to help the people, and I think I have a heck of a lot of common sense, and that’s what we need today, and I’m not so obsessively partisan that I let that get in the way of doing what’s right for the people.”
“So, I would love to,” she concluded.
Despite being not “obsessively partisan,” Palin has been hitting all the right notes for the modern Republican party. This includes supporting Trump during his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, and more recently, coming down firmly against vaccine mandates.
She would also be incredibly attractive to Republicans considering the person she would likely target is Senator Lisa Murkowski, someone who hasn’t exactly been popular among Republicans in general due to her constant willingness to embrace Democrat agendas.
Recently, former President Donald Trump and current Republican Kingmaker, told Alaskan Gov. Mike Dunleavy that he’d receive his endorsement but only if he didn’t back Murkowski.
Palin also fired a shot over Murkowski’s bow back in October via Twitter, making the joke that she can see 2022 from her house, an allusion to Tina Fey’s Palin character’s famous line.
As it stands, Murkowski leads in polls against other Republican candidates, but this is a poll that did not have Palin on the list of options.
How much of a chance Palin would have today remains to be seen, with hints that she might return in the air, it’s likely that some pollsters will become curious and try to find out themselves. If, and more likely when they do, it’s likely that you’ll see these numbers change quite a bit with Murkowski being a bit less popular than before.
Palin may be infamous in many mainstream circles but what she does have going for her is name recognition which goes a long way in a glorified popularity contest. Palin’s assurances that she’s not obsessively partisan also seem to play to the independent and left-leaning voters who aren’t rubbed raw by Murkowski’s politics as Republicans are.
Palin might return, and if so, there’s no reason to think she won’t be a threat.