Prior to being elected Governor, Barbour worked as a lawyer and lobbyist, and also served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997, during which the Republicans captured both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives for the first time since 1954. On June 24, 2009, Barbour was elected the new Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, following the resignation of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford as its leader.

Mitchell Elias "Mitch" Daniels, Jr. (born April 7, 1949) is the 49th and current Governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. A Republican, he began his four-year term as Indiana's 49th Governor on January 10, 2005 and was elected to his second term by an 18-point margin on November 4, 2008. Previously he was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush and also worked for Eli Lilly and Company. He widely cited as a rising star within the Republican party and has approval ratings hovering near 70%.

A college history professor, political leader, and author, Gingrich twice ran unsuccessfully for the House before winning a seat in the election of November 1978. He was re-elected ten times, and his activism as a member of the House's Republican minority eventually enabled him to succeed Dick Cheney as House Minority Whip in 1989. As a co-author of the 1994 Contract with America, Gingrich was in the forefront of the Republican Party's dramatic success in that year's Congressional elections and subsequently was elected Speaker of the House. Gingrich's leadership in Congress was marked by opposition to many of the policies of the Clinton Administration. Shortly after the 1998 elections, when Republicans lost five seats in the House, Gingrich announced his resignation from his House seat and as Speaker.

Huckabee is the author of several best selling books, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, musician and a public speaker. He is also an ABC Radio political commentator. He and his wife, Janet, have been married for 33 years and have three grown children: John Mark, David, and Sarah. Janet Huckabee was an unsuccessful candidate for Arkansas Secretary of State in 2002.

Palin was a member of the Wasilla, Alaska City Council from 1992 to 1996, and the city's mayor from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 until she resigned in 2004. In November 2006 she became the youngest person and the first woman ever elected Governor of Alaska.

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American physician and Republican Congressman for the 14th congressional district of Texas. Paul is a member of the Liberty Caucus of Republican congressmen which aims to limit the size and scope of the federal government, and serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Committee on Financial Services, where he has been an outspoken critic of American foreign and monetary policy. He has gained notoriety for his right-libertarian positions on many political issues, often clashing with both Republican and Democratic Party leaders. Paul has run for President of the United States twice, first in 1988 as the nominee of the Libertarian Party and again in 2008 as a candidate for the Republican nomination.

Timothy James "Tim" "T-Paw" Pawlenty (pronounced /pəˈlɛnti/; born November 27, 1960) is the 39th and current Governor of Minnesota. In the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 2002 he was elected governor and was inaugurated on January 6, 2003. He was re-elected in 2006. On June 2, 2009, Pawlenty announced that he would not seek re-election in 2010.

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and the 70th Governor of Massachusetts. Romney was CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm. Romney successfully organized and steered the 2002 Winter Olympics as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Romney served one term as Governor from 2003 to 2007, and was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election. He is widely seen as a frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President in the 2012 Presidential Election.

Santorum is considered a social and fiscal conservative. He is particularly known for his stances on the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Social Security, intelligent design, homosexuality, and the Terri Schiavo case. Santorum was defeated 59% to 41% in the 2006 U.S. Senate election by Democratic candidate Bob Casey, Jr. This was the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent Senator since 1980.

In March 2007, Santorum joined the law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC. He will primarily practice law in the firm’s Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. offices, where he will provide business and strategic counseling services to the firm's clients. In addition to his work with the firm, Santorum also serves as a Senior Fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and is a contributor to Fox News Channel. Santorum is currently considering a bid for president in 2012.

Born and raised in South Dakota, Thune attended college at Biola University in California before returning to his home state to obtain a graduate degree at the University of South Dakota. He worked as a legislative aide to Senator James Abdnor and served in the Reagan Administration in the Small Business Administration, before winning election to the House of Representatives in 1996. After three terms in the House, he unsuccessfully challenged Democrat Tim Johnson in the U.S. Senate race in 2002, losing by a mere 524 votes (0.15%). Thune was elected to the Senate two years later, defeating the incumbent Democrat, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle.