Sarah Palin's former in-laws are supporting her main Republican opponent Nick Begich in the upcoming Alaska special election

Sarah Palin at her campaign headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska on April 20, 2022.
AP Photo/Mark Thiessen

Sarah Palin's one-time in-laws are supporting Nick Begich III, her foremost Republican opponent.
Faye Palin, Sarah Palin's former mother-in-law donated $250 to Begich.
Sarah Palin is attempting a comeback and is running in a special election for the state's House seat.

Sarah Palin may be attempting a political comeback, but that doesn't mean she can count on the support of her former in-laws, Jim and Faye Palin.

Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday revealed that Faye Palin — the mother of Sarah Palin's ex-husband Todd Palin — contributed $250 on May 19 to Nick Begich III, Sarah Palin's most formidable Republican rival in the upcoming special election for Alaska's at-large House seat.

That came just over a month after both Jim and Faye Palin announced their support for Begich in a pair of posts on the Republican candidate's Facebook page.

"We know many of our elected officials and candidates on a first name basis. It also makes it hard sometimes in picking who to vote for," said Jim Palin. "This election, Nick Begich is getting my vote."

"Nick and I share similar views on what's best for Alaska's future," said Faye Palin. "He's the kind of guy that'll roll up his shirt sleeves and work tirelessly for all Alaskans."

Begich's campaign disclosed receiving $250 from Faye Palin on May 19.
Federal Election Commission

Sarah Palin divorced her ex-husband and father of her five children Todd Palin in 2020. "It was the most earth-shattering, bizarre thing I could have ever imagined and it kind of remains so," she told the New York Post recently.

And it's not the first time Sarah Palin has been snubbed by her now-ex in-laws; in 2008, Faye Palin told the New York Daily News that she was still undecided between then-candidate Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. That was just days after McCain had selected Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential nominee.

"I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative," Faye Palin told the outlet. "Well, she's a better speaker than McCain."

Faye Palin also once ran to succeed Sarah Palin as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, only for her incumbent daughter-in-law to withhold her endorsement over the former's support for abortion rights.

Alaska voting records show that both Jim and Faye Palin are registered independents and that they've both already cast their votes via mail-in absentee ballot on April 27.

Sarah Palin, once a rising star and a king-maker among Republicans following her stint as the party's vice-presidential nominee, is now attempting a political comeback, running in a special election to succeed the late Republican Rep. Don Young who died in March this year.

And while the only poll conducted so far showed Sarah Palin leading the field, it also found that most voters held a negative opinion of her. That could spell trouble for the former governor and one-time "Masked Singer" contestant, given Alaska's newly-instituted ranked-choice voting procedures.

Under that system, a "jungle primary" is set to take place on June 11; after that, the top four candidates will advance to the general special election on August 16. Begich has received the endorsement of the Alaska Republican Party and has out-raised Palin nearly two-to-one, documents also showed.

Long-time rival Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska snubbed Palin's upstart campaign when Insider asked her about it in April, saying that Palin is just "one individual out of 50" running for the seat and that there are "some folks with real good qualifications" also running in the races.

And despite her role in helping to boost several senators when they were first getting their start in Republican politics, many have declined to return the favor.

"Well, I think that'll be up to the people of Alaska," Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa — who was endorsed by and campaigned with Palin when she first ran for Senate in 2014 — told Insider at the time. "I don't know who else is running, and I would want to know."

Read the original article on Business Insider