[2] As governor, Pawlenty also reformed Minnesota's education system, passed a concealed carry law, and codified a 24-hour wait period before receiving an abortion.

[3] His administration advocated for numerous notable public works projects, including the construction of the Northstar Commuter Rail Line and Target Field.

[16] He later became vice president of a software as a service company, Wizmo Inc.[17][18] Having moved to Eagan, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Pawlenty was appointed to the city's Planning Commission by Mayor Vic Ellison.

After Pawlenty himself became governor, he appointed Grunseth's ex-wife, Vicky Tigwell, to the board of the Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport, which was called out as an ethics and accountability issue in 2003.

[35][36][37] University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs said that slowing state spending and opposing tax increases were Pawlenty's signature issues.

[39] After a contentious budget session with a Democrat-controlled Senate, he signed a package of fee increases, spending reductions, and government reorganization that eliminated the deficit.

Judge Kathleen Gearin ruled that Pawlenty had exceeded his constitutional authority in making unilateral spending cuts to a $5.3-million special dietary program that he had unalloted.

[56] Eventually, due in part to the efforts of House Speaker Margaret Kelliher, who was running for the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor of Minnesota, the legislature passed legislation approving nearly all the original unallotments.

[60] Tribes with casinos opposed the expanded gambling and some legislators objected on moral grounds that the state shouldn't exploit problem gamblers.

[71] Adam Sorensen from Time questioned whether this was a case of double standards, pointing out New York's kosher food regulations, Blue Laws that prohibit alcohol sales on Sundays, and Pawlenty's own creation of "The Governor's Council On Faith-Based And Community Initiatives".

[78] She was seen as an outsider coming from Virginia and became unpopular for having pushed the academic reforms during a tight budget session as well as her critical view of Minnesota public schools.

Legislators criticized her performance as transportation commissioner, citing ineffective leadership and management, and removed her from that role in February 2008, a decision Pawlenty said was motivated by partisanship.

Pawlenty used or threatened vetoes in 2005, 2007 and 2008 on legislation funding proposed highway expansion, infrastructure repairs, road maintenance, and mass transit.

[88] In April 2008, during the budget bonding bill signing, Pawlenty used his line-item veto on $70 million for building the Central Corridor light-rail project intended to connect Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

[90] The veto disappointed some of Minnesota's U.S. representatives, including Republican Senator Norm Coleman, who pledged to "raise my voice as strong as I can, as loud as I can.

[89] The Central Corridor funding issue was resolved on May 19, 2008, with the state pledging the original amount for the project after legislators compromised with Pawlenty's budget requests.

When crime rates in Minneapolis spiked up 16% from 2004 to 2005, city officials blamed Pawlenty for large cuts to state aid, which they said restricted public safety resources.

[97] According to the Star Tribune, "A report on Minnesota's sex-offender program delivered to legislators in the final days of the Pawlenty administration was heavily edited by a top political appointee to reflect the former governor's skepticism about the effectiveness of treatment and to delete arguments for expanded community resources for offenders.

"[104] In 2004, Minnesota's Star Tribune newspaper opined that the credibility of Pawlenty's commissioner of health, Dianne Mandernach, suffered when a website posting by the department suggested that abortion might have a role in breast cancer.

[113] Throughout his eight-year tenure, Pawlenty hosted a weekly one-hour radio show on WCCO-AM, a tradition he inherited from his predecessor as governor, Jesse Ventura.

[130] In January 2008, a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune suggested Pawlenty's renewed focus on his proposed immigration reform plans might be politically motivated as counterbalance to McCain's less favorable guest worker program.

[131] For many weeks, Pawlenty was widely considered to be a leading candidate for the vice-presidential nomination on the Republican ticket with John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

[148] In his extended interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, he said he thinks United States Social Security and Medicare need to be cut to balance the federal budget.

Unionized public employees are making more money, receiving more generous benefits, and enjoying greater job security than the working families forced to pay for it with ever-higher taxes, deficits and debt.

[159] The Wall Street Journal wrote of his candidacy, and the luck he experienced in the GOP's field, that Pawlenty has a "golden chance to become the chief rival to... Mitt Romney".

[169] In November 2012, Pawlenty said that "Republicans and Democrats will have to reconcile their differences on spending and taxes because the 'walls of reality are closing in on them'" relative to the federal government's looming "fiscal cliff".

He also "refuted assertions that implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, legislation enacted roughly 27 months [earlier] in response to the financial crisis, ha[d] been delayed because of lobbying".

The group praised him for reduced growth in spending and taxation, but found that he "has some simply inexcusable tax hikes in his record" and questioned his support of proposals such as "mandatory vegetable oil in gasoline, cap and trade, and a statewide smoking ban".

[184] In Pawlenty's 2018 Minnesota gubernatorial campaign, he received an A rating from the National Rifle Association of America, supported permit-to-carry laws, and was open to an optional background check for private firearm sales.

In 2016, Pawlenty had expressed disapproval of Trump's "comments and language and behavior", calling the president "unsound, uninformed, unhinged and unfit" during his campaign.