Todd Palin

Todd Mitchell Palin (born September 6, 1964) is an American businessman who was the first Gentleman of Alaska from 2006 to 2009.

Because he is a non-enrolled lineal descendant of an enrolled Alaska Native (his great-grandmother), he and his children are eligible for health benefits under federal law through the 1970 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Tuklung was consolidated into the Manokotak Village, a federally recognized tribe.

In 1982, Palin graduated from Wasilla High School, which is the same alma mater of his wife and their eldest two children, son Track and daughter Bristol.

He has taken some college courses but did not complete a degree.

Palin was a union member and belonged to the United Steelworkers union.

For eighteen years, he worked for BP in the North Slope oil fields of Alaska.

Palin first registered to vote in 1989.

Palin has competed in the Tesoro every year since 1993.

From October 1995 through July 2002, except for a few months in 2000, he was registered to vote as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.

In 1995, Palin partnered with Dwayne Drake for his first win.

He has previously raced with Dusty Van Meter in the race, and they were co-champions in 2000 and 2002.

Palin was the first Gentleman, or "first dude," as he was often nicknamed, for two and a half years, from 2006 to 2009.

Early on in that role, he encouraged young Alaskans who could not afford college to consider jobs in the oil and gas industry as an effective training ground, and advised the governor on workforce development issues for the natural gas pipeline she supported.

In 2007, in order to avoid a conflict of interest that related to his wife's position as governor, he took a leave from his job as production supervisor, when his employer became involved in natural gas pipeline negotiations with his wife's administration.

Seven months later, because the family needed more income, Todd returned to BP.

In order to avoid potential conflict of interest, this time, he accepted a non-management position as a production operator.

His racing teammate is Scott Davis, with whom he won in 2007.

He is the former husband of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee with John McCain.

Palin was born and raised in Dillingham, Alaska to James F. "Jim" and Blanche Palin (née Roberts).

Palin has Yup'ik, Dutch, and English ancestry.

His grandmother Lena Andree was the daughter of a Dutch-American father and a Yup'ik mother and she grew up speaking both English and Yup'ik.

Andree grew up in the now abandoned community of Tuklung in a mixed race region of Bristol Bay and was a member of an Alaska Native corporation, but was not an enrolled citizen of any tribe.

Palin is not actively involved in Native politics or any Native organizations, but receives dividends from the Bristol Bay Native Corporation.

His blood quantum is one-eighth and that of his children is one-sixteenth.

In late August 2008, The Politico reported that Palin was registered to vote as an independent (undeclared), and had never registered as a Republican.

Gregg Erickson, columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, said, in September 2008, that Palin "obviously plays an important role ... I've seen him in the governor's office and I know that she's conducted interviews in the governor's office with him present".

The emails showed Palin discussing a wide range of activities: potential board appointees, constituent complaints, use of the state jet, oil and gas production, marine regulation, gas pipeline bids, wildfires, native Alaskan issues, the state effort to save the Matanuska Maid dairy, budget planning, potential budget vetoes, oil shale leasing, "strategy for responding to media allegations," staffing at the mansion, per diem payments to the governor for travel, "strategy for responding to questions about pregnancy," potential cuts to the governor's staff, "confidentiality issues," Bureau of Land Management land transfers and trespass issues and requests to the U.S. transportation secretary.

He was a judge in the 2008 Miss Alaska pageant.

In 2008, while defending his Tesoro Iron Dog championship, he was injured and broke his arm 400 mi from the finish line when he was thrown 70 feet from his machine.

He was sent to the hospital but managed to finish in fourth place.

He resigned from his job on September 18, 2009, with the stated reason as a desire to spend more time with his family.

He is also a commercial salmon fisherman at Bristol Bay on the Nushugak River.

His wife, Sarah, confirmed that he is not registered with any party both in her 2009 memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, and in a Q&A session following a 2010 address to a national convention of the Tea Party in Nashville, Tennessee.

As of late 2009, Palin was a community volunteer who worked in youth sports, coaching hockey and basketball.

In February 2010, the state of Alaska released to msnbc.com reporter Bill Dedman about 1,200 e-mails, which totaled 3,000 pages, that Palin exchanged with state officials.

Almost 250 additional ones were withheld by the state, under a claim that executive privilege extends to Palin as an unpaid adviser to the government.

Thoroughbred racehorse First Dude, named after Palin's nickname, finished second at the 2010 Preakness Stakes and won the 2011 Hollywood Gold Cup.

Palin is a four-time champion of the Tesoro Iron Dog, the world's longest snowmachine race, which traces the path of the Iditarod race with an extra journey of several hundred miles to Fairbanks added.

In August 2012, Palin became a contestant on the NBC celebrity reality competition series Stars Earn Stripes.