Stuart Stevens

Stuart Stevens is an American author and political consultant. He was the cofounder of Washington, D.C.–based political media consultancy Stevens & Schriefer Group (with Russell Schriefer). In 2013, he became a founding partner in Strategic Partners & Media. He served as a top strategist for Mitt Romney's failed 2012 presidential campaign in addition to several other significant presidential campaigns over the course of his career. He later joined The Lincoln Project, a Republican Never Trump group for the 2020 United States presidential election. In 2023, he published an analysis of political changes moving toward autocracy.

Early life and education Stevens, who is from Jackson, Mississippi, grew up in the southern United States in the 1960s. He felt that the Democratic Party members he knew consisted predominantly of "good ol' boy" segregationists; he chose instead to join the Republican Party. Pembroke College, Oxford (study abroad English, 1972), Middlebury College (MA English, 1976), and UCLA Film School (studied MFA Film).

Stevens is an extreme sports enthusiast who participates in triathlons. He has completed the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race and once skied the last 100 miles to the North Pole.

Career Beginning his political career in his native Mississippi, Stevens worked on Thad Cochran’s campaigns and others. Stevens worked for Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign and was part of George W. Bush's media team in 2000 and 2004. His book The Big Enchilada is a chronicle of Bush's 2000 campaign. He and Russell Schriefer worked for John McCain's campaign early in the 2008 election, but changed their allegiance to Mitt Romney by July 2007. He also worked for 2006 election campaign of Joseph Kabila in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2014, Stevens helped Senator Thad Cochran win the Mississippi Senate race which included overcoming primary challenger Chris McDaniel. During the 2014 election cycle, Stevens and his business partner Russ Schriefer saw all of their clients win their general election campaigns including Governor Larry Hogan in Maryland and Elise Stefanik – at the time, the youngest woman ever elected to congress.

Romney campaign Stevens emerged from an internal power struggle during Romney's 2008 presidential campaign, in which he and Schriefer clashed with the campaign's existing media team, to become Romney's senior strategist in 2012.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden Stevens was one of the most prominent Republicans to oppose Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. On May 28, 2020, Stevens announced that he had joined the Lincoln Project. In October 2020, Stevens said that he planned to vote for Joe Biden and the straight Democratic ticket.

Television and film Stevens has worked on television shows including Northern Exposure

The Last Season: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime of College Football, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2015

The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Democracy to Autocracy, 2023