Alaska Gov. Palin to be Named as McCain Running Mate
by FOXNews.com
Friday, August 29, 2008
DAYTON, Ohio тАУ John McCain will introduce Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate at an event here at noon Friday, senior campaign sources confirmed to FOX News.
Palin emerged earlier in the day as the hot name in the VP sweepstakes after reports circulated that two short-listers тАФ Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty тАФ were out of the running.
Adding fuel to the Palin candidacy was a report that a charter aircraft from Anchorage owned by a McCain supporter had arrived at a small airport outside Dayton, Ohio, where McCain has scheduled a noon ET rally to announce his choice.
FOX News reported the jet flew to Flagstaff, Ariz., on Thursday before heading landing in Middletown, Ohio.
Palin is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. She is the stateтАЩs first female governor, the mother of five тАФ and at 44 is its youngest chief executive.
FOX News confirmed Thursday that McCain had made his selection and would appear with his pick at the Dayton rally.
Born in Idaho, Palin moved to Alaska with her parents, to Charles and Sally Heath, when she was 3 months old.
She grew up in Wasilla, just outside of Anchorage, and played on the Wasilla state championship girlsтАЩ basketball team. She was crowned Miss Wasilla in 1984 and was a runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant.
Palin studied journalism and political science at the University of Idaho and graduated in 1987. She eloped with her high school boyfriend, Todd Palin, in 1988 to save money on an expensive wedding. She helped out in her husbandтАЩs family commercial fishing business and appeared occasionally as a television sportscaster.
Palin won a seat on the Wasilla City Council in 1992 as a new face and a new voice, and by opposing tax increases. Four years later she was elected mayor at 32 by knocking off a three-term incumbent. At the end of her second term, party leaders encouraged her to enter the 2002 race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Against veteran legislators with far more experience, Palin finished second by fewer than 2,000 votes, making a name for herself in statewide politics. She was elected AlaskaтАЩs youngest and first woman governor in 2006.
Sarah and Todd Palin have five children: boys Track, 19, and Trig, 4 months, and daughters Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7. Track Palin joined the Army last September and will deploy to Iraq on Sept. 11. Palin gave birth to Trig, who has Down syndrome, in April and returned to work three days later.
Palin will be the second female vice presidential candidate from a major political party. The first was New York Rep. Geraldine Ferrarro, who was Walter MondaleтАЩs Democratic running mate in 1984.
Earlier in the day, sources told FOX News that Romney was not going to be McCainтАЩs choice, even
though the former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to appear at the
Dayton rally.
And Pawlenty told a Minneapolis radio station that he was not going to be in Dayton for the McCain announcement.
тАЬIтАЩm going to be at the [Minnesota] state fair,тАЭ Pawlenty said on WCCO.
тАЬI will not be in Dayton, Ohio, so I think thatтАЩs a fair
assumption,тАЭ the Minnesota governor said when asked if this was an
indication that he would not be McCainтАЩs running mate.
тАЬIt was an honor to be considered,тАЭ he added.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who like Romney was a rival to
McCain in the primaries, sent an e-mail to supporters on Thursday
evening saying he would not be at the rally. Sources later told FOX
News that Huckabee was not in the running.
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