Sarah Palin

The University of Idaho is proud of its legacy of leaders, which includes former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, named by Sen. John McCain as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. University of Idaho alumni are sizable in number, but remain a close-knit community. A large number of university alumni, such as Palin, have gone on to distinguish themselves in public service.

Sarah Palin ’87 is a rising star. She was featured in a Newsweek article about women in state government and interviewed on Charlie Rose’s national PBS program.

The youngest governor in Alaska’s history and the first woman governor since statehood, Palin is a 1987 graduate of the University of Idaho.

Combining her curiosity with her love of writing, she decided to pursue a degree in journalism. “I was always asking everyone the questions, and I still am today,” Palin says.

Palin first got into politics running for city council in Wasilla, Alaska. Palin says her youth was more of an issue to voters than her gender, but that didn’t stop her from running for mayor of Wasilla and winning when she was only 32.

“We accomplished a lot in the fastest growing area of the state, and we reduced a bunch of taxes,” Palin says. “Our agenda worked.”

In early 2006, Palin sensed dissatisfaction with some of Alaska’s longtime political figures and decided to run for governor.

“Knowing that former Governor Frank Murkowski’s term was about to end, and seeing that it was the same old people wanting to run, I said to myself, ‘Let’s get way out there and take a stand for things that weren’t right and had to be changed.’”

Since leaving the governorship in the summer of 2009, Palin has written a best-selling book, made numerous public speaking engagements, and starred in the TLC televison series Sarah Palin's Alaska.