Former Republican Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty’s wife, Mary, is considering whether to run for the U.S. House in 2016, sparking intrigue about what such a race would look like. Reports of her interest came after Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., announced that he would not seek re-election in 2016.
Former governor Tim Pawlenty, who led the state from 2003-2011 and ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, developed a mixed reputation among conservatives for doing things like increasing state spending and expressing fears about climate change. After his presidential campaign, he signed on as president of the Financial Services Roundtable, a K Street lobbying firm that represents financial services companies.
Whether Mary Pawlenty, a former state judge, would be similar in terms of style or policy is largely unknown.
“You know, I’m probably more moderate than people think,” she said in a 2012 podcast. “I hold a balanced view.” However, she also praised former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a libertarian who sought the Republican presidential nomination in both 2008 and 2012.
“There are a few things about the Ron Paul people that make sense to me,” Mary added. “He’s a libertarian, and libertarians have a general view of wanting the government to go away. I am just not a fan of the federal government.”
Her view on Ron Paul would position her to perform strongly among Republican activists in the district, who sent delegates to support the former presidential candidate at Republican national conventions in both 2008 and 2012, although some suggest that a moderate candidate would fare better in a general election.
Voters in the district have opted to support incumbent Rep. Kline by large margins since his initial election in 2002. Yet at the same time, they have voted for more Democrats at the federal level than Republicans. A majority supported both of the state’s Democratic senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken. President Obama also won the district by a slim margin in 2012.
Conservatives have long insisted that Kline, a close ally of his party’s leadership in the House, was a bad fit for the district. Bill Jungbauer, who served for five years on the state Republican Party’s executive committee, told the Washington Examiner that it was largely “uninformed voters” who supported Kline.
“Mary [Pawlenty] is well-known among the older establishment activists of the past,” Jungbauer said. But to mobilize activists who have been feeling uninspired as of late, she would need to “get a fundraising plan in place and start getting volunteers on board quickly,” he said.
Because of the way Minnesota’s caucus system is set up, candidates must first seek an endorsement from their political party before seeking to win a primary election that will grant them ballot access. They can opt to bypass the party’s endorsement process, or run without it, if they believe they have little chance of winning. Wealthy or powerful candidates sometimes choose to run without their party’s support, but that doesn’t happen often.
Pat Anderson, who was elected state auditor the same year that Tim Pawlenty was elected governor in 2002, told the Examiner that Mary Pawlenty was a “good, likable candidate” who would “easily be the lead fundraiser.”
Anderson added that those qualities would help her to win the endorsement process if she chose to participate, which was an advisable thing to do. “In Minnesota, the endorsed candidate almost always wins a primary unless they are clearly unqualified or severely out of the mainstream of conservative Republican philosophy,” Anderson said.
Prior to Kline’s announcement that he would retire, Republican businessman David Gerson had already announced that he would also seek the seat. Gerson challenged Kline in the past election as well, but fell short during the endorsement process.
The process of selecting delegates for the party’s nominating process will begin when the state holds its caucuses on March 1.
