Steve Schmidt
Stephen Edward Schmidt is an American political and corporate strategist. He is best known as a co-founder of the Lincoln Project in 2019, in opposition to Donald Trump and his leadership of the Republican Party. He left it in 2021 and has co-founded the Save America Movement, a PAC organized to oppose the actions of the Republican Party under Trump.
Earlier, Schmidt had worked on Republican political campaigns, including those of President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona Senator John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign.
He was a vice chair at the public relations firm Edelman, where he advised CEOs and senior decision makers at Fortune 500 corporations, until he stepped down July 2018. He became a political analyst for MSNBC in 2011, and appeared on the third season of Showtime's The Circus.
Schmidt has been extremely critical of Donald Trump, and of the GOP for supporting him. In June 2018, Schmidt renounced the Republican Party as "fully the party of Trump". In September 2020, Schmidt predicted that violence would erupt as a result of Trump's election denial proclamations. In early December 2020, he stated: "The Republican Party is an organized conspiracy for the purposes of maintaining power for self-interest, and the self-interest of its donor class... It's no longer dedicated to American democracy."
Schmidt is a founder of The Lincoln Project, a group founded to campaign against Donald Trump. It became the most financially successful Super-PAC in American history, raising almost $100 million to campaign against Trump's failed 2020 re-election bid. He left the group in 2021.
In a podcast on December 14, 2020, Schmidt announced that he planned to register as a member of the Democratic Party.
Early life and education
The son of a schoolteacher and a telecommunications executive, Schmidt grew up in North Plainfield, New Jersey, where he became an Eagle Scout, a tight end on the high school football team, a two-year member of the National Honor Society, and senior class vice president. In 1988, he was one of two graduating seniors voted "most likely to succeed" by his classmates at North Plainfield High School. As a young boy, he distributed campaign materials for Democrat Bill Bradley's 1978 United States Senate election in New Jersey.Schmidt attended the University of Delaware from 1988 through the spring of 1993, majoring in political science. During this time, he registered as a Republican. He left three credits short of graduation because he did not pass a math course. Schmidt has said that he has been diagnosed with a learning disability that makes higher math difficult for him. He joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, and worked on the 1992 gubernatorial campaign of Delaware Republican B. Gary Scott. Schmidt completed his final math course and received his degree in 2013.
Career
Early campaigns
In 1995, Schmidt managed the unsuccessful campaign for Kentucky Attorney General of Will T. Scott, who is formerly a Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. This Kentucky campaign's advertising strategy was featured in the second edition of George Magazine.From 1997 to 1998, Schmidt was communications director for California State Senator Tim Leslie. In 1998, he was the communications director for California State Treasurer Matt Fong's unsuccessful campaign to unseat U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer. In 1999, he was the communications director for Lamar Alexander's presidential run, leaving in June when the campaign reduced its senior staff.
Washington, D.C.
By late 2000, Schmidt was communications director of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.In 2001, he became the communications director and chief communications strategist of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Schmidt joined the Bush administration as a deputy assistant to the president and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2004, he was a member of the senior strategic planning group, led by White House adviser Karl Rove, that ran President George W. Bush's re-election campaign; Schmidt oversaw the reelection "war room". In 2005 and 2006, he was the White House strategist responsible for the U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
California
In 2006, Schmidt left the White House to become the campaign manager of the successful re-election campaign for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, following the firing of Mike Murphy, Rob Stutzman and Pat Clarey. Prior to Schmidt's involvement, the governor's approval rating was 39%. Schwarzenegger was predicted to lose the 2006 election, having lost four ballot measures in 2005. The media strategist for Schwarzenegger's opponent Phil Angelides said that Schmidt "was able to restore Arnold's original appeal." Countering a national anti-Republican wave, Schwarzenegger was re-elected in a landslide winning by a margin 17 percentage points in what was considered "a remarkable political turnaround."From there, he became a partner in Mercury Public Affairs in charge of Mercury's operations in California.
In 2007, Schmidt was named "Campaign Manager of the Year" by the American Association of Political Consultants.
2008 McCain presidential campaign
John McCain called Steve Schmidt in 2007 as his campaign was faltering and a majority of campaign staff had resigned. McCain had gone from the Republican frontrunner on New Year's Day 2007 to last place and bankruptcy by July 2007 under the leadership of John Weaver and Rick Davis. After Schmidt joined the campaign as a volunteer, the McCain campaign moved from last place in the Republican primaries to win New Hampshire in January 2008, and then in South Carolina, Florida, California and other states, ultimately becoming the Republican nominee. McCain's comeback is regarded as among the greatest of the modern presidential era.After securing the nomination, the McCain campaign was viewed as "unfocused." On July 2, 2008, Schmidt was appointed to head up day-to-day operations of the McCain campaign in response to concerns that the campaign lacked coordination and a clear message. Rick Davis retained the formal title of "campaign manager", and was in charge of the vice presidential selection and vetting process, alongside attorney A.B. Culvahouse, resulting in the selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
He was dismayed after learning that Davis had promoted Palin as McCain's running mate, saying in an interview with Kyiv Post that "I thought she would bring down the entire campaign." Schmidt's relationship with Palin was tumultuous, with Schmidt confronting her on multiple occasions. He personally took charge of her debate preparations in the fall of 2008. On election night, Schmidt refused Palin's demands that she give a concession speech and reminded her that vice presidential candidates do not traditionally speak on election night, out of concern that her speaking would debase the peaceful transition of power.
In 2008, Schmidt worked to handle accusations that McCain was having an affair with a lobbyist. According to Schmidt, McCain afterwards revealed to him that the accusation was true. In a 2022 article posted on The Warning, Schmidt wrote that "John McCain's lie became mine."
In 2022, Schmidt revealed he was deeply disillusioned with McCain by the end of the campaign and did not vote for him, and instead left his presidential vote blank.
Press commentary
The New York Times described Schmidt's management as having transformed the McCain campaign into "an elbows-out, risk-taking, disciplined machine", crediting him with aggressive responses to press criticism and creative methods of manipulating the news cycle.Time's Michael Scherer, in an opinion piece from September 15, 2008, relating to Schmidt's involvement with John McCain's presidential campaign, stated that Schmidt, the "lord of outrage, has a long and prosperous career ahead of him".
On September 22, 2008, Schmidt accused The New York Times of bias against McCain in favor of his opponent, Barack Obama, calling the Times "a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day impugns the McCain campaign, attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor " and saying "Whatever The New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization."
Stance on gay rights
Schmidt turned down all public appearances during the 2008 Republican convention as a protest against the party's stance on gay marriage. His only appearance was before the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group, during which he voiced his support for gay rights. He said: "I just wanted to take a second to come by and pay my respect and the campaign's respect to your organization and to your group. Your organization is an important one in the fabric of our party" and "I admire your group and your organization and I encourage you to keep fighting for what you believe in because the day is going to come."Schmidt said about his sister and her life partner: "On a personal level, my sister and her partner are an important part of my life and our children's life."
While leading the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign, the McCain campaign stated that "gay adoption is a state issue and does not endorse any federal legislation."
In February 2013, Schmidt, along with 74 other Republicans, co-signed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of overturning Proposition 8. "The die is cast on this issue when you look at the percentage of younger voters who support gay marriage", he was quoted as saying. "As Dick Cheney said years ago, 'Freedom means freedom for everybody.
Schmidt was hired by the American Civil Liberties Union in June 2013 to help spearhead the campaign to strike down state-based laws prohibiting same-sex marriage.