Sara Fagen
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Sara Taylor Fagen (born September 15, 1974) is a technology and data entrepreneur, and former staff member in the administration of President
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 ...
.


Education and early career

Fagen was born on September 15, 1974 in Dubuque, Iowa. She graduated from
Wahlert High School Wahlert Catholic High School is a private Roman Catholic high school in Dubuque, Iowa, United States, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque. History During a meeting on June 17, 1955, Archbishop Leo Binz and the pastors of the Dubuque Cath ...
, a private, co-educational, Roman Catholic school, in 1992. She then attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. While in college, she was the National Co-Chairman of the
College Republicans College Republicans are college and university students who support the Republican Party of the United States. Many members belong to the organization College Republican National Committee (CRNC), College Republicans United (CRU), or various in ...
. She also took a year off, in 1995–1996, to work on Senator
Phil Gramm William Philip Gramm (born July 8, 1942) is an American economist and politician who represented Texas in both chambers of Congress. Though he began his political career as a Democrat, Gramm switched to the Republican Party in 1983. Gramm was ...
's presidential campaign in Iowa. After graduating from Drake in 1997 with a B.S. in Finance, Fagen worked for two years at the
Tarrance Group V. Lance Tarrance, Jr. is a Republican American pollster and political strategist who has conducted public opinion studies for national corporations, foundations, elected leaders of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and state governme ...
, a northern Virginia polling firm headed by
Ed Goeas Ed, ed or ED may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ed'' (film), a 1996 film starring Matt LeBlanc * Ed (''Fullmetal Alchemist'') or Edward Elric, a character in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' media * ''Ed'' (TV series), a TV series that ran fro ...
.


White House career

In April 1999, Fagen began working for the presidential campaign of George Bush. Her initial position, through January 2000, was coalitions director for Bush's Iowa caucus campaign. She then did field work in the South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and Illinois primaries, and finally served as executive director of the Michigan campaign. After Bush was elected, Fagen worked for the White House as an associate political director (Midwest) doing political and public affairs outreach. Fagen became the deputy to Matthew Dowd, Chief Strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign. Sara served as a senior aide and White House Political Director for President George W. Bush, and playing a part in the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. During the campaign, ''The Wall Street Journal'' called her a "data whiz," and said: "As a top strategist for the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election efforts Fagen helped perfect political micro-targeting." She also served as a senior strategist helping to direct the President's message development, paid media strategy, and opinion research. After Bush's 2004 re-election, Fagen returned to work in the White House, where she served as the director of the White House Office of Political Affairs and deputy assistant to President George W. Bush. She left for the private sector in May 2007.


Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy

On June 13, 2007, the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and House judiciary committees issued a subpoena to Taylor, to produce documents and testify before the committee. A subpoena was also issued to
Harriet E. Miers Harriet Ellan Miers (born August 10, 1945) is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party since 1988, she previously served as White House Staff Secretary ...
, former White House counsel and supreme court nominee. In response to the subpoenas, the White House said that its longstanding policy was that no past or present White House officials would be permitted to testify under oath before the panels, and that only private, non-legally-binding, non-transcribed interviews would be permitted. The Democratic chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees said that the White House terms were unacceptable. A ranking member of the Senate Judiciary committee, Arlen Specter (R-PA) said that the White House had not responded to an April 11, 2007, inquiry by the committee, and he supported the issuance of the subpoena in light of the lack of response by the White House and Taylor. On July 9, 2007, White House counsel
Fred Fielding Fred Fisher Fielding (born March 21, 1939) is an American lawyer. He held the office of White House Counsel for President of the United States, US Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush in addition to serving as an Associate and Deputy White ...
, in letters to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representative
John Conyers John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. The districts he represented always included part of western Detroit. ...
(D-MI) said President Bush is invoking executive privilege and not allowing Taylor to
testify In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. La ...
, but reiterated that Taylor was available for a private, off the record interview.


Business career

In 2008, Fagen founded a media firm, BlueFront Strategies, as a strategic consulting and public affairs company to focus on issue advocacy and solutions for business. In mid-2009, Fagen co-founded, with public affairs veteran John Brady, the company Resonate Networks, an advertising firm that uses data on political leanings and attitudes to help companies and interest groups sell online ads. Fagen became a partner at DDC Advocacy in 2011 after the company acquired Bluefront Strategies. Fagen also sits on the board of CentraForce. Fagen's commentary appears on CNBC, where she is regular contributor.


Deep Root Analytics

In 2013, Fagen and TargetPoint Consulting partners founded Deep Root Analytics, a media analytics company that helps clients use big data to make ad buying decisions. They aim to improve microtargeting by providing better web-enabled media targeting. In June 2017 cyber risk analyst Chris Vickery discovered Deep Root's data on an unsecure Amazon server, which exposed political data on more than 198 million American citizens. Sources of the data included
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 ...
, the Kantar Group and r/FatPeopleHate, among other subreddits.


Personal life

Fagen is the daughter of Ray Taylor, a former Iowa state representative. She is married.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fagen, Sara 1974 births College Republicans Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy Drake University alumni George W. Bush administration personnel Iowa Republicans Living people Politicians from Dubuque, Iowa Pollsters