Todd Palin

Political Relative

Known to Alaskans as the "First Dude," Todd Palin is the husband of Alaska governor Sarah Palin. The Palins met as teens at Wasilla (Alaska) High School, where both played basketball. They eloped in 1988, after Sarah returned from college. The next year Todd began working for the oil company BP, eventually becoming a manager in the company's oil fields on Alaska's North Slope. He is also a commercial fisherman each summer in the salmon fisheries at Bristol Bay, thanks to a fishing license passed down through his family. An avid sportsman, he is a four-time winner of the Iron Dog race -- an annual 2000-mile snowmobile race from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks. Todd Palin became nationally known in 2008 when his wife was nominated for vice-president of the United States, joining John McCain on the Republican ticket. That same year he was mentioned prominently in the so-called "Troopergate" investigation authorized by the Alaska state legislature, which found that Todd Palin had pressured state employees to fire Mike Wooten, an Alaska state trooper who was divorced from Sarah Palin's sister. A separate investigation, by a state personnel board under Palin's authority, later found the Palins innocent of any wrongdoing.

Extra credit: Todd Palin's formal title in the state of Alaska is First Gentleman... His mother maternal grandmother is a native Alaskan from the Yup'ik tribe... Todd and Sarah Palin have five children: son Track (b. 1989), daughters Bristol (b. 1990), Willow (b. 1994), and Piper (b. 2000), and son Trig (b. 2008). Trig, who has Down Syndrome, was born while Sarah Palin was governor... Todd Palin graduated from Wasilla High and does not have a college degree... He was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in 1984... Palin won the Iron Dog race in 1995, 2000, 2002 and 2007.