John Weaver (political consultant)

John Weaver is an American political consultant best known for his work on the John McCain presidential campaigns of 2000 and 2008. In between, he worked for a time for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.[1] He was also the chief strategist for the presidential campaign of Republican John Kasich.[2][3]

John Weaver
Born
Kermit, Texas, U.S.
Alma materTexas A&M University
Political partyRepublican

Early life and education

Weaver is a native of Kermit, Texas; he studied at Texas A&M University, where he worked at The Battalion, the student newspaper.[4]

Career in politics

Texas politics

Weaver worked for Republican congressmen Phil Gramm and Tom Loeffler, as well as Bill Clements.[4] Weaver was executive director of the Republican Party of Texas (in which capacity he worked with Rick Perry); was a Texas leader in George H. W. Bush's campaigns for president in 1988 and 1992; and worked for Gramm in his unsuccessful 1996 bid for the presidency.[4]

McCain adviser

For a decade, Weaver was a senior adviser to Senator John McCain of Arizona.[4] He was described as one of McCain's "closest advisers" and "an architect of McCain's 'Straight Talk Express,'" and left the McCain campaign in July 2007, along with campaign manager Terry Nelson, political director Rob Jesmer, and deputy campaign manager Reed Galen, following several consecutive months of poor fund-raising.[5]

In 2004, Weaver appeared in the documentary film (based on the 2003 book of the same name) Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, which alleges that Karl Rove, former campaign manager and Deputy White House Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, was behind a South Carolina push poll during the 2000 Republican primary that used racist innuendo to undermine support for McCain by asking voters: "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?"[6]

In 2008, Weaver made headlines within the Washington beltway during the John McCain lobbyist controversy when some American media personalities speculated about his involvement in an article published by The New York Times that questioned the propriety of McCain's relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. Weaver denied speaking to the paper without the campaign's approval.[7]

Weaver and Mark Salter are viewed as two of the aides who were closest to McCain.[8]

Huntsman and Kasich aide

Weaver served as the chief strategist for Jon Huntsman's 2012 presidential campaign.[9] After Mitt Romney's defeat in the November 2012 general election, Weaver tweeted, "In our party, intolerance can no longer be tolerated".[10]

By June 2015, Weaver had been hired to work on the prospective presidential campaign of Ohio Governor John Kasich.[11] Acting as Kasich's strategist viewing the February 20, 2016 South Carolina primary, Weaver is quoted in The Atlantic as saying, "We want to do well enough to keep Jeb from doing well. If we knock him out of the race, it's a victory."[12]

Post-2016

In 2019, Weaver and fellow Republican operatives George Conway, Steve Schmidt, and Rick Wilson wrote an op-ed published in the New York Times, calling for Donald Trump to be defeated in the 2020 presidential election. The four wrote, "The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet."[13] He serves as an advisor to The Lincoln Project, a super PAC organized by current and former Republican operatives opposed to the re-election of Donald Trump in 2020."[13]

In April 2019, Weaver signed a six-month contract with a subsidiary of Rosatom, worth $350,000 plus expenses, to lobby on “sanctions or other restrictions in the area of atomic (nuclear) energy, trade or cooperation involving in any way the Russian Federation”[14] and submitted FARA registration form[15]. However, after the report of the contract has been published, Weaver cancelled the contract. [16]

References
  1. Amy Sullivan (September 2003), "General Election", Washington Monthly, p. 17
  2. Flegenheimer, Matt (April 28, 2016). "Ted Cruz's 'Alliance' With John Kasich Hits New Low Point". New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  3. Zengerle, Jason. "Winning Isn't Everything: John Weaver and the business of political seduction". Politico. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  4. Ross Ramsey, , Texas Observer (June 27, 2011).
  5. Dan Balz and Anne E. Kornblut (July 11, 2007). "Top Aides Leave McCain Camp: Senator Retools Campaign Team as Money and Support Fall Off". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 15, 2008.
  6. Richard H. Davis (March 21, 2004). "The Anatomy of a Smear Campaign". The Boston Globe.
  7. Chris Cillizza (February 21, 2008). "John Weaver Speaks". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2008.
  8. Jonathan Alter, The John McCain I Know Will Make the Most of This Moment, Daily Beast (July 21, 2017).
  9. "Huntsman Stands by His Strategist". The New York Times. August 4, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  10. Pitzke, Marc, "The New America Flexes its Muscles", Der Spiegel, August 11, 2012. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  11. Henry J. Gomez, "Republican consultants Fred Davis and John Weaver join John Kasich's presidential campaign-in-waiting" http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/06/republican_consultants_fred_da.html. Cleveland.com. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  12. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/02/the-great-republican-stalemate/470058/
  13. George T. Conway III, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver & Rick Wilson, We Are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated, New York Times (December 17, 2019).
  14. Theodoric, Meyer (May 15, 2019). "Kasich adviser will lobby against potential Russia sanctions". Politico.
  15. "FARA Registration Form" (PDF).
  16. "Top Kasich adviser agrees to lobby for Russians – then backs out". The Columbus Dispatch.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.