Tim Pawlenty - Personal Life

Personal Life

Pawlenty and his wife Mary have two daughters, Anna and Mara. Mary was appointed as a judge of the Dakota County District Court in Hastings, Minnesota, in 1994. After he was elected Governor in 2002, the family remained at their Eagan home instead of moving into the Governor's residence because of his wife's requirement to live in her judicial district. In 2007, she left her judicial position to become General Counsel of the National Arbitration Forum, a dispute-resolution company based in Minneapolis. She stayed on only briefly before departing for another dispute-resolution company, the Gilbert Mediation Center.

Pawlenty was raised a Roman Catholic. His conversion to an Evangelical Protestant faith has been attributed to his wife Mary, who is a member of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a member congregation of the Minnesota Baptist Conference. In a January 2011 interview, Mr. Pawlenty stated, "I love and respect and admire the Catholic Church. I still attend Mass once in a while there. The church I now attend is an interdenominational church which has got many former Catholics in it, and so we share the Christian faith and the Bible. I had to reconcile my faith life with my wife so we could have a consistent, integrated family faith life."

Pawlenty frequently uses (and is referred to by) the mononym "TPaw" or "T-Paw".