Raj Shah

Raj Shah (born c. 1985)[1] is a Republican political aide who served as the White House Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant to the President from 2017 to 2019. Prior to joining the Trump Administration, Shah was in charge of opposition research at the Republican National Committee. In July 2019, Fox Corporation announced he had joined the company as a senior vice president.[2]

This article is about the Trump administration official. For the Obama administration official and President of the Rockefeller Foundation, see Rajiv Shah.
Raj Shah
White House Deputy Press Secretary
In office
September 12, 2017 – January 14, 2019
PresidentDonald Trump
LeaderSarah Sanders
Preceded bySarah Sanders
Succeeded byHogan Gidley
Personal details
Bornc. 1985 (age 34–35)
Political partyRepublican[1]
EducationCornell University (AB)

Early life

Shah's parents immigrated to the US from Mumbai.[1] He was born and raised in Connecticut,[3][4] where his father worked as an engineer and his mother as a dentist.[1]

Shah attended Brien McMahon High School, and was named an Ettinger Scholar in Norwalk, Connecticut. He studied government at Cornell University, and received his bachelor's degree in 2006.[1]

Career

Shah volunteered in Bridgeport for U.S. Congressman Chris Shays (R-CT) during high school and interned for U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and others in Washington as his interest in politics developed. He found he was disagreeing with Democrats in his family and those he met during internships, Raj cast his first vote for George W. Bush in 2004, and interned in the White House in 2005.[1] While working as a campaign spokesman for New Mexico Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez in 2010, Shah was arrested for DWI and reckless driving, and was immediately terminated from his position.[5][6]

By the 2012 presidential election cycle, Shah was deputy research director at the Republican National Committee and he said in that job that he learned what not to do in the 2016 election. He worked with the campaign staff and manager of the Mitt Romney campaign and others to plan how to defeat Hillary Clinton well before she announced her candidacy. Shah was a co-founder of America Rising, "a right-leaning political action committee that produces opposition research on Democratic candidates". The playbook on the Clinton campaign was

very deep, it's very broad. We had the time and resources to dig through it all and kind of pick and choose how we wanted to go about the general election. I think it played to our benefit. When the email issue broke, we knew what buttons to push. When issues surrounding the foundation came up we knew where to look. We filed over 550 FOI requests and we sued the government half a dozen times to release records. All these sorts of things were years in the making. It was a huge coordinated effort.[1]

As head of opposition research in the Republican National Committee (RNC) in 2016, Shah led a team of experts to carry out research against Hillary Clinton. Shah was behind the anti-Clinton campaign during the campaign. Then-incoming White House Chief of Staff and outgoing head of the RNC Reince Priebus said that Shah would be among the key leaders in helping to implement the President-elect's agenda and bringing change.[7] Prior to the election, Shah called Trump "deplorable" and remarked that the release of the Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape was "some justice"; he also helped get embarrassing footage of Trump to use in a Jeb Bush commercial for the latter's campaign.[8]

Shah was one of the early staffers on duty in the White House on Inauguration Day, attending to reporters' inquiries and beginning establishment of the communications apparatus (emails of 'OCIO' distributions of the address and the first White House pool report were early to go out) in the West Wing and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.[9]

He left the White House in January 2019. Fox Corporation announced in July 2019 that he had joined the company as a senior vice president.[10] The New York Times reported in 2020 that he had been tasked with running a project to discredit critics of Fox News.[11]

gollark: One of these words is PROBABLY right.
gollark: And?
gollark: Waaaait, what if the bidder name actually matters? I wouldn't put it past Him.
gollark: I *will* buy that obelisk.
gollark: OH BEES WHAT THE BEE IS GOING ON WITH THIS AUCTION æ.

See also
  • Indian Americans in the New York City metropolitan region

References
  1. Krasselt, Kaitlyn, "Norwalk’s Raj Shah forged his own political path", The Hour (Norwalk, Connecticut), January 16, 2017. Aged 32 at time of story; with picture. Retrieved 2013-03-31.
  2. Business, Brian Stelter, CNN. "Former White House spokesman Raj Shah is now a senior VP at Fox". CNN.
  3. "RNC’s Raj Shah Given Top White House Research Post", The Washington Free Beacon, January 4, 2017. Echoing much of the January 5 Financial Express article. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  4. "Raj Shah becomes first Indian-American to hold press gaggle aboard Air Force One". Washington, D.C.: The Times of India. November 30, 2017.
  5. "Susana Martinez Spokesman Charged With DWI". Abqjournal.com. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  6. "Martinez spokesman fired over DWI arrest". Nmpolitics.net. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  7. "Donald Trump appoints Indian-American Raj Shah to key White House position", PTI via The Financial Express, January 5, 2017. Echoing much of the January 4 Washington Free Beacon article. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  8. Nuzzi, Olivia (February 5, 2018). "White House Official Called Trump 'a Deplorable'". New York.
  9. Wheaton, Sarah, "Trump staff arrives at the White House", Politico, January 20, 2017. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  10. Business, Brian Stelter, CNN. "Former White House spokesman Raj Shah is now a senior VP at Fox". CNN.
  11. Smith, Ben. "Record Ratings and Record Chaos on Cable News". New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
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