58 American speechwriters

John Phillips Avlon is an American journalist and political commentator. He is a Senior Political Analyst and anchor at CNN and was the editor-in-chief and managing director of The Daily Beast from 2013 to 2018. Avlon was previously a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun and chief speechwriter for former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Matt Bai is an American journalist, author and screenwriter. Since 2014, he has been the national political columnist for Yahoo! News. On 25 July 2019, via Twitter, Bai announced he was leaving Yahoo! News to "focus on screenwriting". For more than a decade prior to that, he was the chief political correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, where he covered three presidential campaigns, as well as a columnist for the Times. His cover stories in the magazine include the 2008 cover essay "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?” and a 2004 profile of John Kerry titled "Kerry’s Undeclared War". His work was honored in two editions of The Best American Political Writing. Bai is a graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University in Medford, MA and Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, where the faculty awarded him the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. In 2014, Bai had two brief appearances as himself in the second season of TV show House of Cards.

Aram Bakshian Jr. is an American political aide and speechwriter. He began his career working for Congressman Bill Brock (1966–70), then became a special assistant and speechwriter for Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Senator Bob Dole (1971). He joined the speechwriting staff of President Richard Nixon and, later, of President Ford (1972–75). He then became a senior consultant to Treasury Secretary William E. Simon (1976–77). Following his government service, Aram went on the lecture circuit as well as becoming a senior fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard before being brought back for White House service.

Patrick Joseph Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996. He ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election.

Andrei Hugo Cherny is an American lawyer, author, former government official, and the founder and President of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. Cherny serves as the CEO of Aspiration, Inc., a financial firm based in Marina del Rey, California.

James Steele Denton was the publisher and editor of World Affairs and the director of the World Affairs Institute in Washington, D.C. Previously Denton was the executive director of Heldref Publications, founded by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick and her husband Evron.

William Edward Dodd was an American historian, author and diplomat. A liberal Democrat, he served as the United States Ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937 during the Nazi era. Initially a holder of the slightly Antisemitic notions of his times, he went to Germany with instructions from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to do what he could to protest Nazi treatment of Jews in Germany "unofficially," while also attempting to follow official State Department instructions to maintain cordial official diplomatic relations. Convinced from first hand observation that the Nazis were an increasing threat, he resigned over his inability to mobilize the Roosevelt administration, particularly the State Department, to counter the Nazis prior to the start of World War II.

Anthony R. Dolan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan from March 1981 until the end of Reagan's second term in 1989. Dolan served as the Director of Special Research and Issues and in the Office of Research and Policy at the Headquarters of the Reagan-Bush Committee. Under the name Tony Dolan he had been, for a time, a conservative folk-singer who put out the album "Cry, The Beloved Country" and appeared on The Merv Griffin Show.

Beverly K. Eakman is an American educator and writer who co-founded the National Education Consortium in 1994.

James Mackenzie Fallows is an American writer and journalist. He has been a national correspondent for The Atlantic for many years. His work has also appeared in Slate, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and The American Prospect, among others. He is a former editor of U.S. News & World Report, and as President Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter for two years was the youngest person ever to hold that job.

Jonathan Edward Favreau is an American political commentator, podcaster, and the former Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama.

David Jeffrey Frum is a Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, who is currently a senior editor at The Atlantic as well as an MSNBC contributor. In 2003, Frum authored the first book about Bush's presidency written by a former member of the administration. He has taken credit for inspiring the phrase "axis of evil" in Bush's 2002 State of the Union address.

David Richmond Gergen is an American political commentator and former presidential adviser who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He is currently a senior political analyst for CNN and a professor of public service and the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Gergen is also the former editor at large of U.S. News and World Report and a contributor to CNN.com and Parade Magazine. He has twice been a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awards—in 1988 with MacNeil–Lehrer, and in 2008 with CNN.

Michael John Gerson is an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, a Policy Fellow with One Campaign, a visiting fellow with the Center for Public Justice, and a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006, and was a member of the White House Iraq Group.

George Franklin Gilder is an American investor, writer, economist, techno-utopian advocate, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute. His 1981 international bestseller, Wealth and Poverty, advanced a case for supply-side economics and capitalism during the early months of the Reagan administration.

Richard Naradof Goodwin was an American writer and presidential advisor. He was an aide and speechwriter to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and to Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Joshua S. Gottheimer is an American attorney, writer, and public policy adviser serving as the U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 5th congressional district. The district includes a swath of suburban and rural territory west of New York City.

Jeffrey Greenfield is an American television journalist and author.

Jeffrey Peter Hart was an American cultural critic, essayist, columnist, and Professor Emeritus of English at Dartmouth College.

Robert Trowbridge Hartmann was an American political advisor, speechwriter and reporter, who served as Chief of Staff for Vice President Gerald Ford and Counselor to the President when Ford was elevated to the presidency in 1974.

Erastus Otis Haven was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1880 until his death. Before this, he was the president of several universities.

Elijah Hedding was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1824.

Elijah Embree Hoss, Sr was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1902. He also distinguished himself as a Methodist pastor, as a college professor and administrator, and as an editor.

David Humphreys was an American Revolutionary War colonel and aide de camp to George Washington, a secretary and intelligence agent for Benjamin Franklin in Paris, American minister to Portugal and then to Spain, entrepreneur who brought Merino sheep to America and member of the Connecticut state legislature. A poet and author, he was one of the "Hartford Wits." He wrote the first sonnet known to have been written in America just about the time independence was declared.

Sarah Hurwitz is an American speechwriter. A senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2010, and head speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama from 2010 to 2017, she was appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council by Barack Obama after leaving the White House.

Tom David Kahn was an American social democrat known for his leadership in several organizations. He was an activist and influential strategist in the Civil Rights Movement. He was a senior adviser and leader in the U.S. labor movement.

Cody Keenan is an American political advisor and speechwriter who served as the Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Keenan studied political science at Northwestern University. After graduation, he worked in the senate office of Ted Kennedy, before studying for a master's in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. After graduation, he took a full-time position on the Barack Obama presidential campaign in 2008. In 2009, he took on the position of Deputy Director of Speechwriting; after Jon Favreau left the White House in 2013, Keenan took over as Director of Speechwriting.

Richard Penn Kemble, commonly known as "Penn," was an American political activist and a founding member of Social Democrats, USA. He supported democracy and labor unions in the USA and internationally, and so was active in the civil rights movement, the labor movement, and the social-democratic opposition to communism. He founded organizations including Negotiations Now! and Frontlash, and he served as director of the Committee for Democracy in Central America. Kemble was appointed to various government boards and institutions throughout the 1990s, eventually becoming the Acting Director of the U.S. Information Agency under President Bill Clinton.

Charles Krauthammer was an American political columnist. A conservative political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his column in The Washington Post in 1987. His weekly column was syndicated to more than 400 publications worldwide.

William Kristol is an American neoconservative political analyst. A frequent commentator on several networks, he was the founder and editor-at-large of the now-defunct political magazine The Weekly Standard. Kristol is now editor-at-large of The Bulwark.

Robert A. Lehrman is an American novelist, commentator, speechwriter, and teacher.

David Litt is an American political speechwriter and author of the comedic memoir Thanks, Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years. He is currently the head writer/producer for Funny or Die’s office in Washington, D.C.

Kenneth Lonergan is an American film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He is the co-writer of the film Gangs of New York (2002), and wrote and directed You Can Count On Me (2000), Margaret (2011), and Manchester by the Sea (2016).

Jonathan Ira Lovett is an American podcaster, comedian, and former speechwriter. Lovett is a co-founder of Crooked Media, along with fellow former White House staffers during the Obama administration, Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor. Lovett is a regular host of the Crooked Media podcasts Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It. As a speechwriter, he worked for President Barack Obama as well as for Hillary Clinton when she was a United States Senator and a 2008 presidential candidate. Lovett also co-created the NBC sitcom 1600 Penn, and was a writer and producer on the third season of HBO's The Newsroom.

Christopher John Matthews is a retired American political commentator, talk show host, and author. Matthews hosted his weeknight hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, on America's Talking and later on MSNBC, from 1997 until March 2, 2020, when he announced that he was retiring following an accusation that he had made inappropriate comments to a Hardball guest four years earlier. On his final show, he stated: "The younger generation's out there ready to take the reins. We see them in politics, in media, in fighting for their causes. They're improving the workplace."

Chirlane Irene McCray is an American writer, editor, and activist. She is married to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and has been described as de Blasio's "closest advisor." She chairs the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City and leads ThriveNYC. She has also published poetry and worked in politics as a speechwriter.

Kathleen Troia "K. T." McFarland is an American political candidate, former government official, and political commentator. She served as Deputy National Security Advisor under Michael Flynn for the first four months of the Trump administration. She was asked to step down by Flynn's successor H. R. McMaster; news of her pending nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Singapore was reported at the same time. President Trump nominated her in May 2017; she withdrew it in February 2018 due to concerns around her answers related to links between Trump associates and Russian officials, in particular about discussions between Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

William McGurn is an American writer. He was the chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush from June 2006 until February 2008, replacing Michael Gerson.

John Joseph McLaughlin was an American television personality and political commentator. He created, produced, and hosted the political commentary series The McLaughlin Group. He also hosted and produced John McLaughlin's One on One which ran from 1984 to 2013.

Stephen Miller is an American government official who serves as a senior advisor for policy to President Donald Trump. His politics have been described as far-right and anti-immigration. He was previously the communications director for then-Senator Jeff Sessions. He was also a press secretary for U.S. representatives Michele Bachmann and John Shadegg.

Margaret Ellen "Peggy" Noonan is an American author, weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and contributor to NBC News and ABC News. She was a primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986 and has maintained a center-right leaning in her writings since leaving the Reagan administration. Five of Noonan's books have been New York Times bestsellers.

Jay Nordlinger is an American journalist. He is a senior editor of National Review, and a book fellow of the National Review Institute. He is also a music critic for The New Criterion and The Conservative.

Robie Marcus Hooker Palmer was a United States diplomat, who served as United States Ambassador to Hungary from 1986 to 1990. He was a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Committee on the Present Danger, Vice Chairman of Freedom House and the Council for a Community of Democracies. He was also the co-founder of the National Endowment for Democracy.

John E. Pickering was an American pioneer in the field of radiobiology, aviation medicine and space medicine and a Colonel in the United States Air Force. He spent much of his career in the Department of Radiobiology, Air University, School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. Pickering was involved with the first tests involving nuclear powered aircraft. Pickering co-wrote President John F. Kennedy’s last official speech before the fateful trip to Dallas, Texas in 1963. Colonel Pickering was a founding member and director of the Health Physics Society, the author of textbooks and many scientific papers.

Daniel H. Pink is an American author. He has written six books, four of them New York Times bestsellers. He was a host and a co-executive producer of the 2014 National Geographic Channel social science TV series Crowd Control. From 1995 to 1997, he was the chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore.

Aneesh Raman is Senior Advisor on Economic Strategy and External Affairs to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Prior to this appointment, Raman spent five years in the tech industry, most recently as Head of Economic and Social Impact Policy at Facebook. Raman previously held a number of positions in the Obama Administration, including as a speechwriter to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, making him the country's first Indian-American Presidential Speechwriter. Raman details his experience as President Obama's speechwriter in a chapter in West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House.

Peter Mark Robinson is an American author, research fellow, television host and former speechwriter for then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and President Ronald Reagan. He is currently the host of Uncommon Knowledge, an interview show by Stanford's Hoover Institution. He is also a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a co-founder of the Ricochet website.

Samuel Irving Rosenman was an American lawyer, judge, Democratic Party activist and presidential speechwriter. He coined the term "New Deal", and helped articulate liberal policies during the heyday of the New Deal coalition. He was the first person to hold the position of White House Counsel.

Paul Davis Ryan is an American retired politician who served as the 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from October 2015 to January 2019. He was also the 2012 vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party, running unsuccessfully alongside Mitt Romney.

William Lewis Safir, better known as William Safire, was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter.

Matthew Scully is an American author, journalist, and speechwriter.

Curt Smith is an American author, media host and columnist. In addition to work as a newspaper reporter, Smith was a political speechwriter until 1992 and a host of radio and television programs until 2002. He has written 17 books, including Voices of the Game, which covers the history of baseball broadcasting. Smith is a newspaper columnist in upstate New York and holds an academic appointment at the University of Rochester.

Theodore Chaikin Sorensen was an American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser. He was a speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, as well as one of his closest advisers. President Kennedy once called him his "intellectual blood bank". Most notably, he is generally regarded as and self-admitted author of Profiles in Courage, for which Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957.

Benjamin Jeremy Stein is an American writer, lawyer, actor, comedian, and commentator on political and economic issues. He began his career as a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before entering the entertainment field as an actor, comedian, and game show host. He is best known on screen as the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, as the host of Win Ben Stein's Money, and as Dr. Arthur Neuman in The Mask and Son of the Mask. Stein co-wrote and starred in the 2008 documentary Expelled, which portrays the pseudoscience of intelligent design creationism as if it were a scientifically valid alternative to Darwinian evolution and alleges a scientific conspiracy against those promoting intelligent design in laboratories and classrooms. Stein is the son of economist and writer Herbert Stein, who worked at the White House under President Nixon. As a character actor he is well known for his droning, monotonous delivery. In comedy, he is known for his deadpan delivery. Stein has made many controversial comments over the years such as claiming that President Obama was "the most racist president there has ever been in America".

Marc Alexander Thiessen is an American conservative author, political appointee, and weekly columnist for The Washington Post. Thiessen served as a speechwriter for United States President George W. Bush from 2004 to 2009 and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld from 2001 to 2006.

Michael A. Waldman is an American attorney and political advisor serving as the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute. Waldman has led the center since 2005.

Judson Churchill Welliver was a "literary clerk" to President Warren G. Harding and is usually credited as being the first presidential speechwriter.