Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin delivered an energetic and full-throated pitch for Donald Trump’s candidacy. | AP Photo Sarah Palin endorses Trump for president 'I am here because like you, I know that it is now or never,' the former Alaska governor declares.

Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for president on Tuesday, proclaiming that “the master of the art of the deal” has the strength and leadership to fight terrorists and restore the greatness that President Barack Obama eroded.

The former Alaska governor turned vice presidential candidate turned reality TV star appeared alongside Trump at his rally in Iowa, where the billionaire businessman is neck-and-neck in the polls with Ted Cruz.


Palin delivered an energetic and full-throated pitch for Trump’s candidacy, saying, “I am here because like you, I know that it is now or never.”

She decried Obama as a disastrous president, and said the billionaire businessman is the outsider that the Republican Party needs to reclaim the White House.“He is from the private sector, not a politician. Can I get a Hallelujah?” she said to the crowd in Ames, Iowa, adding, “Are you ready for a commander in chief who will let our warriors do their job and kick ISIS’s ass?”

Trump stood next to the animated Palin, arms hanging at his side, after introducing her as a “spectacular person.”

The Trump campaign earlier in the afternoon had touted her endorsement as “coveted and influential.” The statement went on to say, "A trusted conservative, Palin has a proven record of being fiscally modest, staunchly pro-life and believes in small government that allows businesses to grow and freedom to prosper."

While the tea party firebrand’s popularity has waned since the 2008 campaign, she still has a substantial following that could serve Trump well. The two combined their wattage in 2011, appearing together in Times Square to eat pizza with a fork, during a stop on Palin’s bus tour. More recently, Palin has hit the media circuit complimenting both Trump and Cruz.

In November, Palin told a North Carolina radio station that Trump becoming president is "a very real possibility." A month later, she told CNN's Jake Tapper, "I'm not going to pick one right now, but what a nice problem to have if it came down to Cruz and Trump."

The news of Palin’s endorsement follows a day of rampant speculation that the Alaska governor would throw her support behind the billionaire businessman — rumors that appeared to get under the skin of Cruz’s campaign. Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told CNN's "New Day” that he would be “deeply disappointed” if Palin backed Trump. Palin had backed Cruz for Senate in 2012.

"I think it’d be a blow to Sarah Palin, because Sarah Palin has been a champion for the conservative cause, and if she was going to endorse Donald Trump, sadly, she would be endorsing someone who’s held progressive views all their life on the sanctity of life, on marriage, on partial-birth abortion," Tyler said.

Cruz himself, however, expressed affection for Palin. “I love Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin is fantastic, without her friendship and support I wouldn’t be in the Senate today,” Cruz said in New Hampshire on Tuesday. “So regardless of what Sarah decides to do in 2016, I will always remain a big, big fan.”

But some in Cruz's network were more blunt, calling the endorsement “unfortunate."

"I think it's unfortunate because we've got a consistent conservative that has a real chance of not only winning in Iowa but winning the nomination as a whole," said Jeff King, the Iowa consultant for Keep the Promise I. "I don't think anybody can claim that they're equal as far as conservatism goes."

Others chalked up the endorsement more as a move to help Palin, who has struggled to a remain an influential voice in the Republican party. She broke into national politics in 2008 and gained widespread appeal as a folksy, straight-shooter. But she has recently attracted more headlines for her family's drama than for her political prowess. "I don't think this really makes much of a difference," Daniel Horowitz, the former policy director for The Madison Project and a senior editor at Conservative Review, said. "I don't think there's any Ted Cruz voter who said 'man, Sarah Palin endorsed, I'm switching to Donald.'"

Horowitz added that he thinks "honestly this is more of a boost to Sarah Palin than it is to Donald Trump."

Palin’s approval numbers among Republicans and the overall public have been slowly declining since August 2008, when Arizona Sen. John McCain chose her as his running mate. Palin was dogged by negative press coverage, including the fallout from an interview she gave to Katie Couric in which she struggled to name a newspaper she reads and a POLITICO report about her $150,000 wardrobe.

Palin has since stumbled in her attempts to refashion herself as a kingmaker in the Republican Party. Fox News dropped her from the network last June, after executives concluded that her relevancy was waning. Also, her political action committee, SarahPAC, has not recently been a strong force in GOP races. Still, Palin has maintained a strong presence on social media, with more than 4.5 million Facebook likes and about 1.2 million followers on Twitter.



