2010 United States gubernatorial elections candidate Kenneth Mapp, a former Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, in the general election on November 2, 2010. De Jongh defeated Mapp in the election. Governor Sarah Palin was elected in 2006 with 48% of the vote and was eligible to seek reelection in 2010. On July 3, 2009, Palin announced that she would not run for reelection, and resigned on July 26, 2009. On July 26, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell became the 12th Governor of Alaska. Parnell officially announced that he would be running for a first full-term in 2010. In August 2010 he won the
Same-sex marriage in Alaska Alaska if they could are similarly situated to those opposite-sex couples who, by marrying, have entered into domestic partnerships formally recognized in Alaska". On July 25, it ruled that denying survivor benefits to a deceased person's same-sex partner violates the survivor's right to equal protection. On May 12, 2014, five same-sex couples filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Anchorage challenging the state's same-sex marriage ban. The suit named Governor Sean Parnell as the primary defendant. The state's brief, filed on June 19, said that the questions the plaintiffs raised were political, not legal. It said that under the