Sean Parnell July 2009, when Governor Palin resigned her position, Parnell became governor and finished the term of office. In 2010, Parnell won a four-year term as governor in his own right. In 2005, Parnell ran and won in the Republican primary to become lieutenant governor. Afterward, in the general election, he was paired with Sarah Palin as her running mate. In Alaska, the lieutenant governor candidates run separately from the governor candidates in the primary election race, but after the primaries, the nominees for governor and lieutenant governor run together as a slate. Palin and Parnell were elected with 48.33% of
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