Editor's note (July 15, 2009): On July 3, 2009, Sarah Palin announced she would step down from her post as Governor. She officially leaves office July 26 and will be succeeded by Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.

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Sarah Palin was elected governor in 2006, defeating incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the GOP primary and then former Gov. Tony Knowles, a two-term Democrat, in the general election.

In 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain selected Palin as his running mate. They lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in November 2008.

Palin entered politics in 1992 with the first of her two terms on the Wasilla City Council. In 1996, she began serving her first of two terms as Wasilla mayor.

(Last updated by The Associated Press on April 2, 2009.)

Mark Begich was elected to the Anchorage Assemby in 1993. He was elected mayor in 2003, and re-elected three years later.

In 2008, he defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, by nearly 4,000 votes.

(Last updated by The Associated Press on April 2, 2009.)

Lisa Murkowski was appointed in December 2002 to complete the remainder of the U.S. Senate term of her father, Frank Murkowski, after he was elected governor.

Murkowski won her first full Senate term in 2004, defeating former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles 50 percent to 45 percent.

Murkowski began her political career in the Alaska Legislature, where she was elected to three terms in the state House from 1998 to 2002. She was elected House Majority Leader by the GOP caucus but stepped down before serving.

(Last updated by Matthew Daly on March 30, 2009.)