Without Sarah Palin, there is no Donald Trump.
So it makes perfect sense that the former president put his support behind the former Alaska gubernatorial House candidacy on Sunday night.
"Sarah supported me in early 2016 and we won a big victory," Trump said in a statement. "Now it is my turn."
Palin was one of the first - and highest-profile - Republican figures to endorse Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. He lent his support that year before the Iowa caucus, which Trump lost to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
"Are You Ready to Leader to Make America Great Again?" Palin said at a rally in Ames, Iowa, in January of that year. "Are you ready to stump for Trump? I'm here to support the next President of the United States - Donald Trump."
On the face of it, backing Trump is again returning the favor. Palin was with her when almost no one thought she could actually win, so now he's going to support her in the crowded 50 candidates! - Special election house race.
But the relationship between Palin and Trump goes deeper than just an endorsement.
Consider how Palin positioned herself as the governor of Alaska and partner of John McCain in 2008. She was clearly against the Republican establishment. He lambasted the press and raised the mainstream media to get it. She routinely shied away from political norms – "being wicked" as she called it – and cited her desire to do so as proof that no one owns her.
Known?
The seeds of Trumpism were planted and created by Palin. She was Trump before Trump in many ways.
Palin nodded to those similarities in her endorsement in 2016. "He's going rogue left and right," she said of Trump at the time. "That's why he's doing so well. He's been able to unveil this idea of the system."
What Palin did was major pump for Trump. He eventually lost his attempt to defeat the party's establishment, but in doing so, he prepared a lot of voters for the outside messaging that Trump touted during the 2016 presidential race.
Trump drew on that specific link in his endorsement. "Sarah took McCain's presidential campaign off the dumps despite the fact that she had to endure some very evil, stupid and jealous people within the campaign itself," he said. "They set out to destroy him, but he didn't let that happen."
There is a tendency to view Trump and his successful 2016 campaign as sui generis. That he built a movement based on anti-establishment rhetoric and unorthodox political tactics that had never existed before.
It's simply not accurate. Nearly a decade before Trump ran, Palin was placing the elements—media mistrust, the indictment of the GOP establishment—that were at the core of Trump's candidacy and his appeal to Republican voters.
Palin is now clearly hoping that the land she once farmed for Trump is fertile enough to be elected to the House. Getting Trump on board should go a long way toward that goal.