- Sarah Palin is short on cash on hand compared to some of her top rivals for the US House.
- The former governor is among 48 candidates running in a June 11 special election.
- Fellow Republicans Nick Begich III and Tara Sweeney have more cash than Palin.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is short on cash compared to her some of her main Republican rivals for an open US House seat, new campaign finance filings reveal.
Palin is one of 48 candidates of all parties running in a special primary election to replace the late Rep. Don Young under Alaska's new top-four primary system. The election is being held all by mail, with ballots due on June 11, and the top four candidates will advance to a ranked-choice special general election to be held on August 16.
Despite the number of candidates in the race, only a handful of them are on the airwaves and spending money, the Anchorage Daily News previously reported.
Palin has raked in over $630,000, spent over $530,000, and has just over $105,769 in cash on hand, according to a new filing from her campaign.
Nick Begich III, a wealthy software entrepreneur, has lent his campaign $650,000, the filings show, in addition to some $135,000 raised from donors. He's spent a little over $304,000 so far and has over $716,000 in cash on hand.
Americans for Prosperity Action, a Koch-aligned conservative political group, has also spent over $83,000 supporting Begich in the special election, records show.
Tara Sweeney, a businesswoman who served as assistant secretary for Indian Affairs for the Interior Department under the Trump administration, has raised over $230,000, spent $82,145, and has $149,000 in cash on hand, also more than Palin has.
Sweeney was the first Alaska Native person to serve in that Interior Department position, and would be the first to serve in Congress. She's also the biggest beneficiary of outside spending in the race, with a super PAC, Alaskans for TARA, spending over $433,972 to support her candidacy so far.
Another super PAC, Independent Alaska, has spent over $60,000 supporting independent candidate Al Gross, who unsuccessfully challenged GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan in 2020.
Gross has raised over $545,000, spent $432,000, and has $113,000 in cash on hand, records show, putting his amount of cash on hand slightly above Palin's.
The three other leading Republicans, Begich, Sweeney, and state Sen. Josh Revak, were all mentored by Young during his 50-year career in Alaska politics, the Anchorage Daily News noted, and are vying to carry on his legacy in Congress.
Palin, meanwhile, has rankled at least one GOP organization, the Anchorage Republican Woman's club, by spurning a candidate forum attended by all her main GOP opponents. The group's president castigated her for not showing up after they supported her previous runs for office.
Ahead of the election, she also left the state to campaign for Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate David Perdue in Georgia, over 4,500 miles away from Alaska. Perdue ended up losing to incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp.