Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announces campaign for Congress

(NEW YORK) — Former GOP vice president candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will run for Alaska’s at-large Congress seat vacated by the late Rep. Don Young, she announced on her Facebook page Friday.

“Today I’m announcing my candidacy for the U.S. House seat representing Alaska,” Palin wrote. “Public service is a calling, and I would be honored to represent the men and women of Alaska in Congress, just as Rep. Young did for 49 years.”

Young died on March 18 at 88 years old after losing consciousness on a flight to Seattle returning home to Alaska. He was the “dean of the House” as the longest-serving representative.

Tiffany Montemayor, public relations manager at the Alaska Division of Elections, confirmed to ABC News that Palin had filed to run on Friday afternoon. The deadline to file was 5 p.m. Friday. The primary will be held June 11 with the special election Aug. 16.

Palin, 58, resigned as governor in 2009, but helped mainstream the populist strain of GOP politics later embraced by former President Donald Trump.

“America is at a tipping point. As I’ve watched the far left destroy the country, I knew I had to step up and join the fight,” Palin wrote. “The people of the great State of Alaska, like others all over the country, are struggling with out-of-control inflation, empty shelves, and gas prices that are among the highest in the world.”

She continued, “We need energy security for this country, and Alaska can help provide that — but only if the federal government gets out of the way and lets the free market do what it does best.”

She was a surprise choice as running mate for the late Sen. John McCain when he ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008.

Palin has stayed in the public eye in the 13 years since she stepped down as governor though she hasn’t run for office since then. She released two books, “Going Rogue” and “America by Heart,” appeared for years as a political commentator on Fox News and starred on the TLC reality series “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” She was also a contestant on Fox’s “The Masked Singer” in 2020.

She was in the news last month when a judge in New York tossed a libel lawsuit she had filed against The New York Times in 2017 saying the newspaper deliberately ruined her burgeoning career as a political commentator and consultant by publishing an erroneous editorial. The judge said she had not proven “actual malice” on behalf of the paper. He allowed the jury to still reach a verdict, but they also ruled in favor of the newspaper.

ABC News’ Ben Siegel and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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