McCain taps Alaska governor for VP

(CNN) - Sen. John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket for the White House in November, the campaign announced Friday.

Palin, 44, is a first-term governor who unseated incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary in 2006 and went on to defeat former Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general election.

She will be the first woman to be nominated for vice president as a Republican, and only the second to run for vice president on a major party ticket, after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. She will also be the first Alaskan to be on the ticket for either party.

Palin is under investigation for her firing of a state official, Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. She has been instructed to hand over documents and recordings of telephone conversation as part of the investigation, which grew out of allegations she sacked Monegan for refusing to fire her former brother-in-law from the state police.