Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said on Wednesday night that she would “love” to return to the political arena, saying she still feels the impulse of a “servant’s heart.”
Newsmax host Eric Bolling elicited Palin’s desire to return to the arena during his show, “The Balance.”
“You’re a very popular personality. You’re a very popular politician,” Bolling told Palin. “Do you have aspirations to get back into elected office, or anything more in politics? What’s next for Sarah Palin?”
“I would love to. I would never say never,” Palin replied without hesitation. “I feel like there are still some offerings that I have in terms of a servant’s heart. 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.”
She added, “I’m not so obsessively partisan that I’d let that get in the way of just doing what’s right for the people. So, I would love to.”
“Hmm, stay tuned, in other words, folks,” said Bolling, who closed out the segment on that note.
.@SarahPalinUSA on running for office again: "I'm not so obsessively partisan that I'd let that get in the way of just doing what's right for the people so I would love to." @ericbolling pic.twitter.com/zF4iFrtTxQ
— Newsmax (@newsmax) December 29, 2021
Palin has repeatedly threatened to run in a primary against Alaska’s U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R), a longtime rival in the state’s Republican circles. Palin’s views are well to the right of Murkowski, who has held the Senate seat since she was appointed by her father, then-Governor Frank Murkowski (R), in 2002.
Palin has clashed with the younger Murkowski in 2018, when she voted against advancing the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the Senate Judiciary Committee, then voted “present” on his final confirmation.
Before the 2020 election, Murkowski had argued against the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the High Court, arguing the next president should make the coveted appointment.
Each time, Palin responded with the same, self-deprecating rejoinder: “I can see 2022 from my house.”
Hey @LisaMurkowski – I can see 2022 from my house…
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) October 5, 2018
Senator Murkowski faces an uphill climb in her bid to win her fourth term in the Senate: The Alaska state Republican Party has endorsed her primary challenger, Kelly Tshibaka. Former President Donald Trump has also announced that, while he has conferred his “complete and total” endorsement upon Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy (R), he would render it “null and void” if Dunleavy endorses Murkowski, who voted to convict the president during his impeachment vote. Murkowski, who lost the 2010 primary to Tea Party candidate Joe Miller, waged a re-election campaign as a write-in candidate. She currently attracts a minority of Republican votes, according to The Washington Post.
Palin has a long and contentious history with more liberal elements of her own party. In October, Meghan McCain discussed the negative treatment members of her father’s campaign inflicted on Palin, singling out current MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace. As this author reported at The Daily Wire, McCain said:
“I have a whole new lens of viewing how Sarah Palin was treated,” said the younger McCain during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Tuesday night.
“The people working for my father’s campaign really, in my opinion, treated her really horribly — set her up for failure,” she said.
Bolling mentioned McCain during the interview as he focused on the media’s biased coverage of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better act, which is currently stalled in the Senate.
“You were vice presidential candidate with John McCain. They called John McCain a maverick … when he broke with the party,” said Bolling. “When Joe Manchin did it recently, he’s being called everything in the book … a traitor, a killer.”
Palin defended Manchin, whom she called “a good man.” She noted that she and Manchin advocated for greater domestic oil, natural gas, and coal exploration as they worked together on the natural resources committee of the National Governor’s Association. Manchin was, at the time, governor of West Virginia. Their working relationship endured to the point that Manchin told local reporters, “we’re friends” the day after Palin campaigned for his Republican opponent in the 2010 election.
Palin said the national Democratic Party had savaged Manchin for keeping his campaign promises. “Think of that, Eric: You get beat up, because you are governing as you campaigned,” she said. “That’s all Joe’s doing.”
Palin, who said she is “optimistic” about Republicans’ electoral prospects in 2022, did not say what office she might seek in the likely event that she does not enter the Alaska Republican Senate primary.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.