John Weaver

John Weaver (born circa 1959) He was also the chief strategist for Jon Huntsman Jr's 2012 presidential campaign, and later, the 2016 presidential campaign of John Kasich.

In 2019, he co-founded The Lincoln Project, a super PAC opposed to the re-election of President Donald Trump in 2020.

Career in politics Texas politics Weaver worked for Republican congressmen Phil Gramm and Tom Loeffler, as well as Bill Clements. He 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.

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?" Rove has always steadfastly denied that he had any involvement whatsoever in that caper, saying that the source was a professor at Bob Jones University.

In 2008, Weaver made headlines within the 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 which questioned the propriety of McCain's relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. Weaver denied speaking to the paper without the campaign's approval.

Weaver and Mark Salter were viewed at one time as two of the aides who were closest to McCain, although, as mentioned, Meghan McCain wrote that Weaver had been reviled by John McCain and his family since 2008, saying that Weaver had "betrayed" her father. After Mitt Romney's defeat in the November 2012 general election, Weaver tweeted, "In our party, intolerance can no longer be tolerated".

By June 2015, Weaver had been hired to work on the prospective presidential campaign of Ohio Governor John Kasich. He became the campaign's chief strategist. Less than two weeks before the 2016 South Carolina primary, Weaver said, "We want to do well enough to keep Jeb [Bush] from doing well [in South Carolina]. If we knock him out of the race, it's a victory." Ultimately, according to The New York Times, Kasich's message "never caught on" and he "found himself stuck in fourth place in a three-man race." Kasich suspended his campaign in May 2016, leaving Donald Trump as the only candidate remaining in the Republican field and hence the party's presumptive nominee. Weaver co-founded The Lincoln Project, a super PAC organized by current and former Republican operatives opposed to the re-election of Donald Trump in 2020. and submitted a FARA registration form. However, after a report of the contract was published, Weaver cancelled the contract.

Sexual harassment allegations In January 2021, responding to a magazine article accusing him of sexual misconduct spanning a period of years, Weaver acknowledged having sent inappropriate, unsolicited sexual messages to 21 men, for which he apologized. According to The New York Times, Weaver offered young men professional support in exchange for sex; that report also accused him of cultivating a non-sexual online relationship with a 14-year-old boy and then engaging in "sexual banter" with him after his 18th birthday. Speaking to Axios, Weaver said, "The truth is that I'm gay and that I have a wife and two kids who I love. My inability to reconcile those two truths has led to this agonizing place." Following the revelations, The Lincoln Project said "John's statement speaks for itself". It later issued a follow-up describing him as "a predator, a liar, and an abuser", and denouncing his "deplorable and predatory behavior".

Personal life Weaver's first marriage ended in 2001 or 2002. Weaver married his second wife, Angela Hession, in 2007. They have two children together. In 2002, he was diagnosed with leukemia.