The Film Archives's video: Women Voters and 2010 Midterm Elections - Kellyanne Conway

Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway (née Fitzpatrick; born January 20, 1967) is an American pollster, political consultant, and pundit who serves as counselor to the president in the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump. She was previously Trump's campaign manager, having been appointed in August 2016; Conway is the first woman to have run a successful U.S. presidential campaign.[1] She has previously held roles as campaign manager and strategist in the Republican Party, and was formerly president and CEO of The Polling Company / WomanTrend.[2] Conway, who lived in Trump World Tower from 2001 to 2008 and conducted private polls for Trump in late 2013 when he was considering running for governor of New York, initially endorsed Ted Cruz in the Republican presidential primaries in 2016 and chaired a pro-Cruz political action committee.[3][4][5][6] After Cruz withdrew from the race, Trump appointed Conway as a senior advisor and later campaign manager.[7][8] On December 22, 2016, Trump announced that Conway would join his administration as counselor to the president.[9] On November 29, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that Conway would oversee White House efforts to combat the opioid overdose epidemic.[10][11] Since Trump's inauguration, Conway has been embroiled in a series of controversies: using the phrase "alternative facts", talking about a "Bowling Green massacre" that never occurred, and claiming that Michael Flynn had the full confidence of the president hours before he was dismissed. Members of Congress from both parties called for an investigation of an apparent ethics violation after she publicly endorsed commercial products associated with the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump.[12] In June 2019, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel recommended that Conway be fired for "unprecedented" multiple violations of the Hatch Act of 1939.[13] Conway entered the polling business when she was in law school, working as a research assistant for Wirthlin Group, a Republican polling firm.[24] After graduating, she initially considered working for a law firm, but chose to work for Luntz Research Companies instead.[26] While a student at Trinity College, she had met and become friends with Frank Luntz, the founder, on a year abroad at Oxford University.[26] In 1995, she founded her own firm, the Polling Company. Conway's company has consulted on consumer trends, often trends regarding women. Conway's clients have included Vaseline, American Express and Hasbro.[27] In the 1990s, Conway, along with other young conservative women Laura Ingraham, Barbara Olson, and Ann Coulter,[24] helped turn punditry into "stylish stardom" in both Washington and cable television[28][29] and credited with setting forth Washington D.C.'s "sexual awakening."[30] In another review of the era in the capital, Conway (then known as Fitzpatrick) put it that her "broad mind and small waist have not switched places".[31] Conway, Ingraham, and Coulter were sometimes called "pundettes"[32] and appeared on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect.[24] Conway worked for U.S. Representative Jack Kemp; Senator Fred Thompson;[25][better source needed] Vice President Dan Quayle;[33] Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; and Representative (now Vice President) Mike Pence.[27] She worked as the senior advisor to Gingrich during his unsuccessful 2012 United States presidential election campaign.[34] Another client in 2012 was U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin.[35] In addition to her political opinion research work, Conway has directed demographic and attitudinal survey projects for trade associations and private companies, including American Express, ABC News, Major League Baseball, and Ladies Home Journal.[25] Her firm The Polling Company also includes WomanTrend, a research and consulting division.[25] Conway has appeared as a commentator on polling and the political scene, having appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, NY1, and the Fox News Channel, in addition to various radio programs. She received the Washington Post's "Crystal Ball" award for accurately predicting the outcome of the 2004 election.[36] Conway has been criticized as a spin doctor of high prominence, particularly in her role as cable TV spokesperson for the Trump Administration.[37] She has been lauded as a "Trump whisperer."[4] As part of their long-running feud with Donald Trump,[38] the MSNBC show Morning Joe publicly "banned" Conway in February 2017.[39] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellyanne_Conway