Jump to content

Kellyanne Conway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kintetsubuffalo (talk | contribs) at 02:28, 27 October 2016 (removed unreliable source). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Kellyanne Conway
Conway in March 2016.
Born
Kellyanne Elizabeth Fitzpatrick

(1967-01-20) January 20, 1967 (age 57)
Camden, New Jersey
Occupation(s)Lawyer, campaign manager
Political partyRepublican

Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway (née Fitzpatrick; born January 20, 1967) is an American Republican campaign manager, strategist, and pollster. She is president and CEO of The Polling Company/WomanTrend, and has been a regular political commentator on CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, and more. She has been a guest on shows such as Good Morning America, Real Time with Bill Maher, Meet the Press, and Hannity.

She became campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on August 17, 2016.[1]

Early life and education

Kellyanne Elizabeth Fitzpatrick was born on January 20, 1967 in Camden, New Jersey.[2] "Conway’s Irish father owned a small trucking company, and her Italian mother worked at a bank. They divorced when she was 3."[3] She was raised in Hammonton, New Jersey where she graduated from St. Joseph High School.[4]

Before entering politics, Conway pursued a career in law. After receiving her B.A. in Political Science in 1989 from Trinity College, Washington, D.C. (now Trinity Washington University), she earned a J.D. in 1992 from the George Washington University Law School and then clerked for a judge in Washington, D.C. She also spent four years as an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law.[5][6]

Career

Conway at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Conway entered the polling business with Wirthlin Group, a GOP polling firm that worked for Ronald Reagan. She also worked for a period for Luntz Research Companies before founding her own firm,[5][better source needed] The Polling Company, in 1995, in which she consulted on consumer trends, often regarding women. Conway's clients have included Vaseline, American Express and Hasbro.[7]

Among the political figures Conway has worked for are Congressman Jack Kemp; Senator Fred Thompson;[5][better source needed] former Vice President Dan Quayle; Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; and Congressman (now Indiana Governor) Mike Pence.[7] She worked as the senior advisor to Gingrich during his 2012 United States presidential election campaign.[8]

In addition to her political opinion research work, Conway has directed demographic and attitudinal survey projects for trade associations and private companies, including American Express, ABC News, Major League Baseball, and Ladies Home Journal.[5] Her firm The Polling Company also includes WomanTrend, a research and consulting division created to better connect corporate America with the female consumer. WomanTrend monitors female consumers as well as a multitude of current and prospective lifestyle, home, work, entertainment, technological, and generational trends affecting all consumers.[5]

Conway has been featured frequently as a commentator on polling and the political scene, having appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, NY1, and the Fox News Channel, in addition to various radio programs. She has received the Washington Post's "Crystal Ball" award for accurately predicted elections.[5] In 2012, in an interview with the Family Research Council, Conway compared Republican criticism of Todd Akin (R-MO), one of Conway's clients, to the siege in 1993 of cult leader David Koresh. An Akin representative said that Conway's comments were "stupid". Conway said she was not comparing Akin to Koresh, but instead comparing the FBI's tactics to force Koresh out with the Republican's tactics to force Akin out of the 2012 election.[9]

In August 2015, Conway became the president of the Promise I Super-PAC, which supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Texas senator Ted Cruz and was funded by hedge-fund tycoon Robert Mercer.[10] After Donald Trump won the Republican Presidential nomination, the PAC morphed into the "Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC".[11]

On July 1, 2016, Trump announced that he hired Conway for a senior advisory position.[12] Conway was expected to advise Trump on how to better appeal to female voters.[12] When the Trump campaign hired Conway, it referred to her as "widely regarded as an expert on female consumers and voters".[13] Conway became the Trump campaign's third campaign manager in August 2016.[7][14] This made her the first woman to run a Republican general election presidential campaign.[14] Conway assumed the role as campaign manager when Trump was losing to Hillary Clinton by about ten points, after he had insulted the parents of the deceased solider, Humayun Khan. She closed the gap in the polls by improving Trump's effectiveness while giving speeches, using language to appeal to voters and focusing speeches, such as when Trump described America as "a nation of strivers, dreamers, and believers."[7]

Bibliography

In 2005, Conway and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake co-authored What Women Really Want: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live (Free Press/Simon and Schuster, 2005; ISBN 0-7432-7382-6).

Mass Connections, Inc. commissioned Conway's research services to inform Volumes 1–3 of the Touch America series, including The Consumer Connection, The Shopper Connection, and Connecting with Consumers ... IN STORE· ON LINE· IN LIFE.[15]

Personal life

Conway is married to George T. Conway III, a litigation partner at the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The couple have four children and live in the New York City area.[5] George Conway was an adviser to Paula Jones in her lawsuit against Bill Clinton.[16]

References

  1. ^ Parker, Ashley; Haberman, Maggie (17 August 2016). "Donald Trump, in Shake-Up, Hires Breitbart Executive for Top Campaign Post". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
  2. ^ Kopan, Tal (September 9, 2016). "Trump campaign manager: Obama was born in US". CNN.
  3. ^ Kessler, Ronald (September 22, 2008). "GOP Strategist: McCain Will Win". Newsmax. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
  4. ^ Johnson, Brent (September 26, 2016). "Meet the N.J. native who's running Donald Trump's campaign". NJ.com.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g The Polling Company (2016). "Kellyanne Conway biography". pollingcompany.com. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  6. ^ Ballotpedia (2016). Kellyanne Conway. Ballotpedia article on Kellyanne Conway.
  7. ^ a b c d Lizza, Ryan (October 17, 2016). "KellyAnne Conway's Poltical Machinations: Can the first woman to run a Republican Presidential campaign reform Donald Trump?". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  8. ^ Author unknown (2012-01-11). Gingrich: "the next 10 days are the most important". Fox News Insider, January 11, 2012. Retrieved on 2015-09-13. [dead link].
  9. ^ McDermott, Kevin (September 28, 2012). "Akin consultant compares GOP attacks to the siege on Waco". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  10. ^ Michael Falcone (August 4, 2015) The Note: Donald Trump on Top ABC News
  11. ^ Kilgore, Ed (August 17, 2016). "Meet Kellyanne Conway – Trump's New Campaign Manager". New York Magazine, August 17, 2016. Retrieved on 2016-08-18.
  12. ^ a b Bailey, Holly (July 1, 2016). "Departures come as steady a campaign operation that has been shaken by internal drama". Yahoo Politics. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  13. ^ Stassa Edwards "Trump Campaign Hires 'Gender Gap' Expert" The Slot, July 1, 2016, Retrieved August 18, 2016
  14. ^ a b "Kellyanne Conway Becomes First Woman to Run GOP Presidential Campaign; Nets Yawn". Fox News. August 17, 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  15. ^ Touch America, Mass Connections.
  16. ^ Conason, Joe (February 16, 1998). "Drudge's Mystery Source? It's Wachtell's Conway". Observer. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kellyanne_Conway&oldid=746383878"