Pawlenty on Meet the Press on Sunday

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is scheduled to be on NBC's Meet the Press this Sunday. The Republican candidate for president is the latest presidential hopeful to appear on the Sunday morning show.

Pawlenty has assembled a strong team of advisers and has been working to make himself a viable alternative to Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.

But he has been lagging in the polls in the key presidential states of Iowa and New Hampshire. And his campaign has hit a series of rough patches. He was widely criticized for pulling a punch against Romney during a Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire. His fundraising figures have also been lower than some observers expected.

He is also competing with fellow Minnesotan, GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann. Polls show Bachmann is picking up key support among Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire.

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Pawlenty is scheduled to campaign in Iowa this week. His campaign manager was predicting some news out of the trip on his Twitter feed.

Update: Pawlenty's campaign has hired Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a political adviser. She'll take the campaign's lead in the Iowa Straw poll.

"Sarah is a results-oriented person with a great track record in Iowa and around the country," Gov. Pawlenty said in a news release. "We are very excited Sarah is joining our team just as we are hitting our stride in Iowa."

Huckabee Sanders is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa Caucuses in 2008. She served as Huckabee's national political director.