WASILLA, Alaska — People here in Sarah Palin’s hometown learned science from her father. They remember how she led the Warriors to an unexpected high school basketball championship, her success as a beauty queen and how her family grew along with the Wasilla Bible Church.
So when Ms. Palin, then a young mother, ran for the City Council in 1992, of course they voted for her. And they kept doing so, for mayor and then for governor — especially the women who, like her, had small children, hated abortion and prayed every day.
“I admire her intelligence and I admire her integrity, but first and foremost she’s a mom, and she has an understanding of what being a mom is,” said Janet Kincaid, a grandmother and Republican who last summer opened her lakeside Wasilla home for a $20,000 Palin fund-raiser.
As Ms. Palin, a first-term Republican governor, sampled the curried tuna puffs and gave her speech, Ms. Kincaid recalled, even the woman who cleans Ms. Kincaid’s house decided to give money.
Although some liberal Democrats dismiss them as “Palinbots” for their reflexive devotion, these women are as dedicated to Ms. Palin as the women Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, called her sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits were to their very different version of the modern female politician.
These are women who dip in and out of the work force, believe in prayer and spend their days trying to keep the crayon off the walls. They feel they have been looked down on by Clinton feminists and ignored by the power structure in the Republican Party. The fact that Ms. Palin has five children, including Trig, a newborn with Down syndrome, only makes her that much more part of the sisterhood.
“I’m not that into politics,” said Delores Field, an Alaska Inupiat from Eagle River, near Anchorage, who does not consider herself a Democrat or a Republican. “I’m just going to vote for Trig Van Palin’s mom.”
This segment of Ms. Palin’s supporters are not the women of Phyllis Schlafly’s deeply conservative generation of Republican women, nor are they the polished women who might have enjoyed lunch with the first lady, Laura Bush, in her Texas days.
Like many women in the valley where Ms. Palin comes from, her appeal here, and in recent days across the country, is more about who she is — that is, a devout Christian with a husband who supports her career, but a person who is not afraid to show up in public with a baby on her hip.
“She didn’t create this, but she showed up at the right time,” said Darla Shine, whose Happy Housewife Club franchise includes a talk radio show, a book and a Web site that receives millions of hits a month. “She represents a huge pocket of women who have been the ignored community for so long.”
Although strong opposition to abortion and an evangelical approach to Christianity are often shared traits among the Palin women, they do not necessarily walk lock step with Republican politics, said Serrin M. Foster, president of Feminists for Life, a lobbying group with 28,000 members, including Ms. Palin.
Some of the group’s members are vegans who might not appreciate Ms. Palin’s penchant for hunting moose. Others might consider themselves moderates who could vote for either party.
“There is a spectrum within the pro-life movement,” Ms. Foster said, “and Sarah is proof that you can be pro-life and pro-woman.”
Rick Mystrom, a Republican who was the mayor of Anchorage when Ms. Palin was Wasilla’s mayor, said other women in Alaska who are politicians, like Senator Lisa Murkowski, also a Republican, are seen differently, as part of the Alaska political machine. (Ms. Murkowski supports abortion rights.)
“Sarah’s appeal,” Mr. Mystrom said, “is that she is everywoman and she became what every woman thinks she can become.”
Ms. Palin’s evangelical Christian beliefs were an asset in this conservative state, and they also helped propel her to the Republican ticket as Senator John McCain’s running mate. She is part of a generation of Christian women who began serving on school boards and small governmental bodies in the 1990s, and often look out for one another.
When she bucked her party and then ran against the Republican governor in 2006, she did not get much support from the traditional channels. So Republican women’s clubs around the state came through by raising tens of thousands of dollars for her campaign.
Ms. Palin’s political career has grown along with her church, which began with a few families and recently moved to a new building that seats 400 and hosts three services on Sunday.
Steve Menard, a member of the church who is running for Wasilla mayor next month, said that although the church helped Ms. Palin’s rise, a political climate ready for someone like her was helping her national profile.
“You needed the right candidate at the right time,” Mr. Menard said, “to open doors for working women who share a set of values.”
Her ability to mix church, family and politics is part of the draw. Through connections with other longtime family friends, including political allies and members of her church, she was able to raise the sales tax in Wasilla as a way to help finance a $15 million sports complex that featured a new hockey rink for her son Track to play on.
This summer, several Christian groups came together for a day of prayer at the arena. Ms. Palin was there with her infant Trig in her arms and a daughter, Piper, nearby.
Some of Ms. Palin’s critics say that her popularity, to a degree, is superficial.
Mike Doogan, who for 14 years was a columnist with The Anchorage Daily News before he became a Democratic state legislator, said he understood her appeal to a certain type of female voter.
But Mr. Doogan said her image was carefully cultivated to do just that.
“There is no more unlikely hockey mom on this planet,” he said. “They are usually not this politically ambitious or cut-throat.”
Anne Kilkenny, who said she voted for Ms. Palin in city elections, said she became disillusioned with her after participating in Wasilla city government and seeing Ms. Palin up close.
“You’ve got to remember,” Ms. Kilkenny said, “we are not much bigger than a high school and she is the homecoming queen.”
None of that matters for the women who see Ms. Palin’s rise as their rise.
“Sarah Palin is a different kind of feminist,” said Joy Ng, who lives in Kodiak with her husband of 35 years. “She is a strong woman who can wear a skirt and be proud of it.”
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