DAYTON, Ohio -- U.S. Senator John McCain has announced that he has selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate and to serve as his vice president.

An e-mail announcing the selection went out to media shortly before McCain was set to take the stage with Palin in Dayton at 10 a.m. Denver time.

Palin is the first woman governor of Alaska, elected in 2006. She was also the youngest ever elected at the age of 42. She is the mother of five children, the youngest of whom was born in April and has Down's Syndrome.

She's also known as a Republican iconoclast who's battled against the state GOP establishment.

It started in 2004, when Palin was chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Palin exposed Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich for ethical violations when he was a commissioner.

Then in 2005, Palin teamed up with Eric Croft, a Democratic legislator and gubernatorial candidate, to file an ethics complaint against Governor Frank Murkowski's longtime aide and then attorney general, Gregg Renkes, who ended up resigning.

During her gubernatorial campaign in 2006, Palin cast herself as a Republican maverick.

Palin was born in 1964. She graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987 with a degree in journalism. She's worked as a sports reporter for two Anchorage TV stations and has been a businesswoman.

Palin served as chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, two terms as mayor of Wasilla and two terms on the city council.

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