Tim Pawlenty

Governor

A lifelong Minnesotan, Tim Pawlenty has been governor of his home state since 2003. Pawlenty grew up in St. Paul and got an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota (1983), then a law degree from the same school in 1986. Pawlenty practiced labor law, including a decade at the firm of Rider, Bennett, Eagan & Arundel, and worked briefly as an Internet executive. A Republican, he was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1992, becoming House majority leader in 1999. He was elected governor in 2002 after campaigning on a conservative anti-abortion, no-new-taxes platform. He was reelected in 2006. His conservative positions earned him national attention in 2008, when he was named prominently as a potential running mate for GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

Extra credit: Pawlenty married the former Mary Anderson in 1987. She also graduated from University of Minnesota Law School in 1986. She was a district court judge from 1994-2007... The Pawlentys have two daughters, Anna (b. 1993) and Mara (b. 1996)... Tim Pawlenty was raised in a Roman Catholic family but converted to evangelical Christianity after his marriage.