Both outspoken Christians, Michele Bachmann and her husband have five children together. In an interview following last week’s Republican Leadership Conference, the newly announced GOP presidential candidate claimed she had “raised” 23 foster children, a statement she has often repeated over the years. But Kris Harvieux, who worked in the foster care system in Bachmann’s county, told The Daily Beast that at least some of Bachmann’s foster kids were only short term. "She makes it sound like she got them at birth and raised them to adulthood, but that's not true," he said. However, she did have some foster children long enough to enroll them in local schools.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
The libertarian conservative from Texas is invariably “pro-family.” In March, the congressman courted evangelical voters in Iowa when he gave a lecture for a Christian organization called The Family Leader. Paul himself also has five children, including Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who has seven children, is adamantly pro-life. He once said that our Social Security system would function better if there were fewer abortions. Like Paul, he is also adamantly pro-family: “The family is the first economy. If the family breaks down, well, government gets bigger because of the consequences of family breakdown,” Santorum has said.
Though former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is a strict Mormon, he insists his religion does not affect his politics. Romney has cited a 2004 meeting with a stem cell researcher as instrumental in changing his views on abortion (he has been pro-life ever since.) Though Romney pledged that he was pro-life in his 2008 campaign, he recently refused to sign a pledge that is being circulated by a pro-life group. Romney has five children with his wife Ann.
Elise Amendola / AP
Tim Pawlenty and his wife, Mary, have two daughters. In 1994, Mary Pawlenty began working as a judge for Dakota County, Minnesota. Thus, when Pawlenty first became governor, they were not initially able to move into the Governor’s Mansion, because judges have to reside in their judicial districts. Additionally, as a judge, she was not able to appear with him at any political events. She left her judgeship in 2007.
Newt Gingrich has been married three times. He first wife, Jackie Battley, was his former high school geometry teacher; they divorced in 1981. Battley claims that Gingrich came to discuss the divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. Gingrich says he doesn’t remember this incident. He married his second wife, Marianne, a few months after the divorce, though that marriage ended in divorce in 2000. His third wife, Callista, is more than 20 years younger than Gingrich. Gingrich’s two daughters are now helping out with his campaign.
Photos: Calvin Cruce / Atlanta Journal-Constitution-AP (left); Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Gary Johnson was married to Denise “Dee” Simms for 28 years, but they divorced in 2005. Simms passed away the following year. Johnson’s two children with Simms– Seah and Erik – are now adults. Johnson is currently engaged to Kate Prusack, to whom he proposed while on a chair lift at a ski resort.
Cain and his wife, Gloria, have two children – Melanie and Vincent.
Family is clearly important to Jon Huntsman: To start, the former governor has eight siblings. Huntsman and wife, Mary Kaye, continued the trend; they have seven children of their own. They adopted two of their daughters – one from India and one from China, where Huntsman served as an ambassador for the Obama administration.
AFP-Getty Images
Sarah Heath married Todd Palin in 1988. The have five children: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig. Additionally, Bristol gave birth to Palin’s first grandchild, Tripp in December 2008. Though Palin has not officially declared her candidacy for the 2012 race, the family does not appear to be leaving the public eye any time soon. The latest media splash came from Bristol Palin’s forthcoming memoir, in which she slams Levi Johnston, the father of her child, as a “gnat.”
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
