Katherine Marie Walsh (born November 1, 1984) is an American
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
political operative who served as
White House Deputy Chief of Staff
The White House deputy chief of staff is officially the top aide to the White House chief of staff, who is the senior aide to the president of the United States. The deputy chief of staff usually has an office in the West Wing and is responsible ...
for Implementation in the
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
administration. She also worked with the Trump-aligned
501(c)(4)
A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exempt from some federal income taxes. ...
advocacy organization
America First Policies
America First Policies is an organization created following the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017 to promote the America First policy agenda of his administration. It was founded by Trump campaign people including Nick Ayers, Rick Gates, and ...
.
Walsh previously served as the Chief of Staff for the
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. Political action committee, political committee that assists the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republi ...
. She joined the Republican National Committee as Deputy Finance Director in January 2013 and became Finance Director in June of that year. In her previous role as Deputy Finance Director for the
National Republican Senatorial Committee
The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) is the Republican Hill committee for the United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lowe ...
, she worked with
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
campaigns across the country to implement comprehensive fundraising and campaign strategies. Her past experience also includes serving as Midwest Regional Finance Director for the
McCain–Palin campaign in 2008 and working for Friends of Fred Thompson, at the Ashcroft Group, and as a field representative for
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
ans for
Matt Blunt
Matthew Roy Blunt (born November 20, 1970) is an American former naval officer and politician who served as the 54th Governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. Before his election as governor, Blunt served ten years in the United States Navy, was e ...
.
Early life and education
Walsh was born an only child in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
. She credits her early interest in politics to her mother, who she said worked on a county executive race in Missouri when she was seven or eight. Her early political involvement came in high school when she worked as an intern for then-Senator
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50th ...
's unsuccessful
2000 reelection campaign. She attended
Visitation Academy of St. Louis, a private, all-girls, Roman Catholic high school, and graduated in 2003. She was a field representative for
Matt Blunt
Matthew Roy Blunt (born November 20, 1970) is an American former naval officer and politician who served as the 54th Governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. Before his election as governor, Blunt served ten years in the United States Navy, was e ...
's
2004 campaign for
Governor of Missouri
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
.
She also worked as an administrative assistant for the consulting firm
Ashcroft Group.
Walsh graduated from
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
with degrees in marketing and finance in 2007.
Career
2008 presidential election
Walsh was hired in 2007 as an assistant to the finance director for
Fred Thompson's brief
presidential campaign
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
.
After Thompson dropped out of the race, she joined the
presidential campaign
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
of
John McCain as Midwest regional finance director.
National Republican Senatorial Committee
Walsh then worked as deputy finance director for the
National Republican Senatorial Committee
The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) is the Republican Hill committee for the United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lowe ...
(NRSC),
implementing fundraising and political strategies for Senate campaigns during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.
Republican National Committee
Walsh was hired as deputy finance director for the
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. Political action committee, political committee that assists the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republi ...
in January 2013 and rose to finance director that June.
At the RNC, Walsh was known as a "
rainmaker",
breaking records by raising over $200 million during the 2014 election cycle.
Walsh was named chief of staff of the Republican National Committee in early 2015,
serving under chair
Reince Priebus
Reinhold Richard Priebus ( ; born March 18, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician who served as White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump from January 20, 2017, until July 31, 2017. He also served as the chairman of the Republ ...
. She was critical of the RNC's practice of sharing voter information with the
Koch Brothers
The Koch family ( ) is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2019 revenues of $115 billion). ...
, saying "I think it's very dangerous and wrong to allow a group of very strong, well-financed individuals who have no accountability to anyone to have control over who gets access to the data when, why and how." Spearheaded by the RNC's technology chief Andrew Barkett for the 2014 election cycle,
she ensured that a partnership began in July 2015 between the voter information in the RNC's
Data Trust, operated by
Karl Rove and developed by
Johnny DeStefano, and the voter information in the
Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by Charles Koch and formerly his brother David. As the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group, it is one ...
and
Freedom Partners
Freedom Partners was a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization, which was founded in 2011 under the name Association for American Innovation, was purposed to promote "the benefits of free markets a ...
' i360, which is supported by the
Koch Brothers
The Koch family ( ) is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2019 revenues of $115 billion). ...
network, so that each database's information would be shared with GOP candidates.
The RNC's Data Trust had been sharing its information with the independent groups
American Crossroads
American Crossroads is a US Super PAC that raises funds from donors to advocate for certain candidates of the Republican Party. It has pioneered many of the new methods of fundraising opened up by the Supreme Court's ruling in ''Citizens United ...
and
American Action Network
The American Action Network (AAN) is a nonprofit, conservative issue advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., aligned to the Republican Party.Ari NatterAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal Could Cost $93 Trillion, Group Says Bloomberg New ...
.
[ The extensive personal information in both i360 and Data Trust are developed from credit card use and internet choices such as credit card purchases, cable TV choices, and other sensitive personal information, much more personal than Facebook data.][ During the 2016 election cycle, Walsh was an architect of the Republican National Committee's ]get out the vote
"Get out the vote" or "getting out the vote" (GOTV) describes efforts aimed at increasing the voter turnout in elections. In countries that do not have or enforce compulsory voting, voter turnout can be low, sometimes even below a third of the ...
and voter identification operations. She focused on using the Republican National Committee's data collection from the previous four years. She told CNN that the RNC intended to look to polls less often in favor of "predictive modeling
Predictive modelling uses statistics to predict outcomes. Most often the event one wants to predict is in the future, but predictive modelling can be applied to any type of unknown event, regardless of when it occurred. For example, predictive mod ...
," which tracks voters' likelihood of voting for Republican candidates. In November 2016, she said, "The beauty of predictive modeling is you're watching an electorate voter-by-voter over a long period of time ... You're watching their movement, you're watching what they care about, you're watching what they respond to to 'sic''and there are a lot of upsides to this." She went on to say that the Republican National Committee was also focusing on get out the vote efforts for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Walsh selected Alex Lundry's political marketing firm Deep Root Analytics to provide data analytics to the Trump campaign, along with TargetPoint Consulting and Causeway Solutions.
Donald Trump presidential transition team
Walsh was a member of Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
's presidential transition team. The transition team was a group of around 100 aides, policy experts, government affairs officials, and former government officials who were tasked with vetting, interviewing, and recommending individuals for top cabinet and staff roles in Trump's administration. She was part of the Leadership staff.
Trump administration
Walsh was named White House Deputy Chief of Staff
The White House deputy chief of staff is officially the top aide to the White House chief of staff, who is the senior aide to the president of the United States. The deputy chief of staff usually has an office in the West Wing and is responsible ...
for Implementation in the administration of Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
. Walsh oversaw senior staff and managed scheduling and the Office of Public Liaison
The White House Office of Public Engagement is a unit of the White House Office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Under the administration of President Barack Obama, it was called the White House Office of Publ ...
. According to ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', Walsh had guarded access to the Oval Office on behalf of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus
Reinhold Richard Priebus ( ; born March 18, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician who served as White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump from January 20, 2017, until July 31, 2017. He also served as the chairman of the Republ ...
.
Walsh resigned from her position on March 30, 2017, becoming an adviser to a pro-Trump 501(c)(4)
A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exempt from some federal income taxes. ...
, America First Policies
America First Policies is an organization created following the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017 to promote the America First policy agenda of his administration. It was founded by Trump campaign people including Nick Ayers, Rick Gates, and ...
, and the Republican National Committee.
References
External links
*
Interview with Walsh
Women in Power (series), ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Katie
1984 births
Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign
George Washington University School of Business alumni
Living people
Missouri Republicans
People associated with the 2016 United States presidential election
Politicians from St. Louis
Trump administration personnel
White House Deputy Chiefs of Staff
Women government officials