User:Tim Ross/Sandbox

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964) is the Governor of Alaska and was the person picked by the Republican Party as their choice to become Vice President in the 2008 United States presidential election. She lost to Joe Biden.

Palin was a member of the Wasilla, Alaska city council from 1992 to 1996, and was the city's leader or mayor from 1996 to 2002. She tried to become the assistant to the Governor of Alaska (the lieutenant governor) in 2002, but failed. Palin led the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004, and was chosen to become Governor of Alaska in November 2006 by first being picked to be the choice of the Republican Party and then being chosen over a man in the Democratic Party who had twice been governor of the state. She is both the youngest governor of Alaska and the first female governor of the state.

On August 29, 2008, John McCain, who was the choice of the Republican Party to become president of the United States, said he wanted Palin to become the Vice President. She was picked at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota to be the Republican Party choice. She was the first woman to be chosen by the Republican Party to try to become either President or Vice President and the first person from Alaska to be picked for one of these jobs by either the Republican or the Democratic Party.

She is married and has five children. Her youngest child, Trig, has Down syndrome. She has a son serving in the U.S. Army.