Matthew John Dowd (born May 29, 1961) is an American political pundit and consultant. He was the chief strategist for the
Bush–Cheney 2004 presidential campaign and was an
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
political analyst. On September 29, 2021, he announced a run for
lieutenant governor of Texas
The lieutenant governor of Texas is the second-highest executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the work of the Texas Senate and control ...
as a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
against the incumbent,
Dan Patrick. On December 7, 2021, Dowd announced the end of his campaign.
Early life
Dowd was born in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, to an Irish Catholic family. He grew up the third of 11 children; his father was an auto executive and his mother was an elementary school teacher before becoming a homemaker.
His parents were Republicans.
Dowd attended Cardinal Newman College in
St. Louis, Missouri
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 ...
.
Dowd attributes his early interest in politics to the
Watergate Committee hearings during the summer of 1973 when he was 12 years old.
Career
Political strategist
Dowd volunteered for the campaign of Rep
William Broomfield
William S. Broomfield, (April 28, 1922 – February 20, 2019) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.
Early life
Broomfield, the son of Scevillian C. and Fern Broomfield was born in Royal Oak, Michigan. His father was a d ...
R-MI and, while attending college in St. Louis, Missouri, for the campaign of Governor
Joseph P. Teasdale D-Mo.
He also worked on the staff of Rep.
Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.
He began his political career as a Democrat, as a member of Senator
Lloyd Bentsen's, D-Tex., Senate and campaign staffs.
He also worked for, among others, Texas Lt. Governor
Bob Bullock
Robert Douglas Bullock Sr. (July 10, 1929 – June 18, 1999), was an American Democratic politician from Texas, whose career spanned four decades. His service culminated in his term as the 38th Lieutenant Governor of Texas from January 15, ...
. In 1999, he switched parties to become a Republican.
[NPR: Matthew Dowd, "Turning Sour on Bush"]
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
; December 31, 2008
During the
2002 midterm elections, Dowd was a senior adviser to 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 ...
.
During the
2004 presidential election, Dowd was chief strategist for
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
's re-election campaign.
Dowd was the strategist for
Arnold Schwarzenegger during his 2006 reelection campaign.
2007: Leaving politics, commentator
As reported in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' on April 1, 2007, Dowd had come to feel a deep frustration with and great disappointment in
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
, whom he criticized for failing to call the nation together in a time of war, for ignoring the will of the American public with regard to the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
, for his re-nomination of former UN ambassador
John Bolton
John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United Sta ...
after his rejected confirmation and for failing to hold Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld accountable for the
Abu Ghraib scandal. According to ''
Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'', Dowd claims to have undergone a change of heart regarding the Iraq War, and adopted a position advocating a withdrawal from that country, after contemplating the likelihood of his own son's
deployment
Deployment may refer to:
Engineering and software Concepts
* Blue-green deployment, a method of installing changes to a web, app, or database server by swapping alternating production and staging servers
* Continuous deployment, a software e ...
to
the country, as well as after seeing Bush refuse to meet with anti-war-mother
Cindy Sheehan in summer 2005, while he was entertaining
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong ('' né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005 after recovering fr ...
at his ranch in
Crawford, Texas
Crawford is a town located in western McLennan County, Texas, United States.
Crawford is part of the Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 887.
The town was incorporated on August 12, 1897. ...
; President Bush had previously met with Sheehan in June 2004. Dowd cited these incidents, as well as Bush's handling of the
Hurricane Katrina disaster, as reasons for this change.
[Rutenberg, Jim. "Ex-Aide Says He's Lost Faith in Bush"]
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', April 1, 2007 Upon leaving the Bush administration, Dowd has not been on speaking terms with former
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
political adviser
Karl Rove.
Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Stone Blumenthal (born November 6, 1948) is an American journalist and political operative. A former aide to President Bill Clinton, he is a long-time confidant of Hillary Clinton and was formerly employed by the Clinton Foundation. As a ...
, in an opinion piece in ''
Salon'', titled "Matthew Dowd's not-so-miraculous conversion", described Dowd as an "opportunist".
In December 2007, he was introduced on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's ''
Good Morning America'' as its new political contributor. He also appears on the same network's ''
This Week'' with
George Stephanopoulos.
On December 2, 2010, Dowd penned an opinion piece in the ''
National Journal'' defending
WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
, writing that, "Republicans and Democrats seem to agree on a few things: That the government, in the name of fighting terrorism, has the right to listen in on all of our phone conversations and read our e-mails, even if it has no compelling reason for doing so."
Dowd is a founding partner of
Vianovo, a strategy consultancy. He has taught at the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (or LBJ School of Public Affairs) is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer training in public policy analysis and administration for students that ar ...
.
As of 2015, he is also a visiting Fellow at the
University of Chicago Institute of Politics The Institute of Politics is an extracurricular, nonpartisan institute at the University of Chicago designed to inspire students to pursue careers in politics and public service. The Institute accomplishes its goals through four major avenues: a c ...
.
He is co-author of the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''
bestseller ''Applebee's America: How Successful Political, Business and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community''. His book ''A New Way: Embracing the Paradox as We Lead and Serve'' was released in 2017.
Dowd has criticized former President
Trump's Twitter use as being dangerous, impulsive and counterproductive. Dowd was especially upset with tweets aimed at the leader of North Korea.
Dowd came under widespread criticism when, during the first
impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump
The inquiry process which preceded the first impeachment of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, was initiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24, 2019, after a whistleblower alleged that Donald Trump may have ab ...
, he tweeted about a congresswoman, "
Elise Stefanik
Elise Marie Stefanik (; born July 2, 1984) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2015. As chair of the House Republican Conference since 2021, she is the third-ranking House Republican. Stefanik's district cover ...
is a perfect example of why just electing someone because they are a woman or a millennial doesn’t necessarily get you the leaders we need." Congresswoman Stefanik called the tweet "disgusting, sexist and shameful". After significant pressure Dowd apologized and removed the tweet in question.
2021: Candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Texas
In September 2021, Dowd announced his campaign for
Lieutenant Governor of Texas
The lieutenant governor of Texas is the second-highest executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the work of the Texas Senate and control ...
as a Democrat.
In October 2021, the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, Democrat Lieutenant Governor Primary vote choice poll had Matthew Dowd with 13% of the primary vote. In early December, however, Dowd announced he was ending his bid for the post, citing a desire for more diversity in the race.
Personal life
Dowd has married and divorced twice. He has three sons from his first marriage. His second marriage ended in divorce after one of his twin infant daughters died in the hospital.
His eldest son, Daniel, is an Army veteran of
Operation Iraqi Freedom and was deployed to Baghdad from 2007 to 2009 as a signals intelligence specialist.
Bibliography
*Dowd, Matthew J.,
Ron Fournier Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald.
Ron or RON may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character
* Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character
*Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...
, and
Doug Sosnik
Douglas Brian Sosnik (born September 26, 1956) is an American political strategist.
Sosnik is a 1978 graduate of Duke University.[Applebee's
Applebee's Restaurants LLC. is an American company that develops, franchises, and operates the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar restaurant chain. The Applebee's concept focuses on casual dining, with mainstream American dishes such as salads ...]
restaurants.
References
External links
*
*
FRONTLINE (PBS) interview with Matthew Dowd*
* (talk show; Dowd, 2004–2017)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowd, Matthew
1961 births
American broadcast news analysts
American columnists
American people of Irish descent
American political consultants
American Roman Catholics
Bloomberg L.P. people
Living people
Michigan Democrats
Michigan Republicans
Texas Democrats
Texas Republicans
University of Texas at Austin faculty
Writers from Detroit
Writers from Texas