Rick Wilson | |
---|---|
Born | Frederick George Wilson November 21, 1963 Tampa, Florida, U.S. |
Education | George Washington University (BA) |
Occupation(s) | Author, political strategist, and media consultant |
Years active | 1988–present |
Notable work |
|
Political party | Republican (before 2017) Independent (2017–present) |
Children | 2 |
Website | therickwilson |
Frederick George "Rick" Wilson (born November 21, 1963) [1] is an American political strategist, media consultant, and author based in Florida. A former member of the Republican Party, he has produced televised political commercials for governors, U.S. Senate candidates, Super PACs, and corporations. [2]
Wilson was a frequent guest on political panel shows during the 2016 United States presidential election, where he denounced Donald Trump and his supporters. [3] He was later a strategist for the Evan McMullin presidential campaign. [4] Since Trump's election as president, Wilson has continued to be a conservative Trump critic, and has authored two books: Everything Trump Touches Dies (2018) and Running Against the Devil (2020).
Rick Wilson was born in Tampa, Florida, the son of an accountant and a housewife. [5] According to Wilson, his parents were both "liberal Democrats" who later became Republicans. [5] Wilson attended George Washington University. [5]
Wilson entered the political arena by campaigning for Connie Mack during the 1988 Florida Senate election. Later, he served on the George H. W. Bush campaign as Florida field director. [6]
Wilson played a significant role in the 2002 United States Senate election in Georgia, in which Saxby Chambliss was facing Democratic Party Senator Max Cleland, a disabled Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Silver Star. Wilson helped create an ad that criticized Cleland, while also tying him to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The ad appeared to question Cleland's patriotism. [7] [8] In an interview with HuffPost , Wilson stated that he thought that "DHS [Department of Homeland Security] was on the front line against Osama bin Laden". [9] As Wilson reflected in 2016, "The Cleland ad was powerful because it went to his strengths [...] Everyone assumed Cleland was immune to critiques on national security issues. [...] they didn't calculate that I have no moral center when it comes to political ads, and I will destroy the innocent and the guilty". [10] Following Cleland's death in 2021, Wilson received criticism from journalists such as Glenn Greenwald and Charlie Pierce. [11] [12]
In 2012, Wilson posted to Instagram an image of a cooler emblazoned with a Confederate battle flag and the words "The South Shall Rise Again", prompting allegations of racism. [13] [14] [15] After public backlash, Wilson eventually deleted the post. It resurfaced in 2020 while The Lincoln Project was airing television ads attacking the public display of that flag. [13] [15] [14] He had left the Republican Party following the 2016 United States presidential election, and in late 2019, co-founded The Lincoln Project, a Super PAC organized by then-current and former Republicans opposed to and working to prevent the re-election of Donald Trump in the 2020 United States presidential election. [16]
In January 2020, Wilson appeared alongside CNN anchor Don Lemon and CNN contributor Wajahat Ali in which they discussed an exchange between United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly. During this segment, Wilson made comments about Trump supporters, stating they were "part of the credulous boomer rube demo". He employed the tone of Southern American English in the segment for emphasis. [17] Wilson has been known to use extremely crude language and generalizations, such as, when criticizing supporters of Donald Trump during an interview with MSNBC leading up to the 2016 presidential election, he called them "childless single men who masturbate to anime". [18]
In June 2020, Wilson tweeted a response to a 2012 Domino's Pizza tweet thanking White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, then a college student, for her opinion that Domino's pizza was superior to pizza from New York. In his tweet, Wilson declared, "You just killed your brand." This later prompted a response from Domino's Pizza's official Twitter account, saying "Welp. It's unfortunate that thanking a customer for a compliment back in 2012 would be viewed as political. Guess that's 2020 for ya." [19] [20] [21] According to The Daily Dot , "Domino’s response immediately went viral", however, they credited Wilson for not deleting the tweet "despite the unrelenting onslaught of mockery" directed at him. [22]
Wilson has written numerous opinion and analysis columns for publications such as The Daily Beast , Politico , The New York Daily News , The Federalist , The Independent Journal Review , and Ricochet , [23] [24] and he is a frequent guest on various cable and network news outlets.
In 2018, Wilson released his first book, Everything Trump Touches Dies, in which he laments the re-alignment of the Republican Party behind Trump. [25] [26] [27] The book reached number one on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list for a week. [28] An audiobook read by Wilson was released alongside the print version.
Wilson's second book, entitled Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump – and Democrats from Themselves, was published in January 2020. [29]
Since 2020, Wilson and fellow The Daily Beast contributor Molly Jong-Fast have been the hosts of the podcast The New Abnormal. [30]
In October 2022, Wilson launched a new podcast entitled The Enemies List, named after Richard Nixon's famous list of political enemies. [31] Also in 2022, Wilson joined the board of directors of VoteRiders, an American non-partisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to ensure that all U.S. citizens over 18 years of age are able to exercise their right to vote. [32]
Wilson lives in Tallahassee, Florida. He has two children. [33]
Michael Ellis Murphy is a Republican political consultant, entertainment industry writer, and producer. He advised Republicans including John McCain, Jeb Bush, David Dreier, John Engler, Tommy Thompson, Spencer Abraham, Christine Whitman, Lamar Alexander, Meg Whitman, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Until January 2006, he was an adviser to Republican Mitt Romney. Murphy resigned his position with Romney when his former client John McCain made it clear he would also pursue the Republicans presidential nomination in 2008; Murphy decided to be neutral in the contest between them. Murphy is a vocal Republican critic of President Donald Trump. He endorsed Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
Richard Lynn Scott is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who has been the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019.
Pamela Jo Bondi is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician. A Republican, she served as the 37th Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019, the first woman elected to the office.
Donald John Trump Jr., often called Don Jr., is an American businessman. He is the eldest child of former U.S. president Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana Trump.
Stephen Edward Schmidt is an American political and corporate strategist. He is best known for working on Republican political campaigns, including those of President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona Senator John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign
The 2002 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Max Cleland ran for re-election to a second term, but was defeated by Republican Saxby Chambliss by nearly a 7 point margin, becoming the first Republican ever to win the state’s Class 2 Senate seat.
John McKager "Mac" Stipanovich is an American lobbyist, political strategist, and activist, best known for his role in the 2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida, in which he helped advise then-Secretary of State of Florida, Katherine Harris.
Matthew Louis Gaetz II is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 1st congressional district since 2017. The district includes all of Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties, and portions of Walton County. A member of the Republican Party, he is widely regarded as a staunch proponent of far-right politics as well as an ally of former president Donald Trump.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Florida was held November 8, 2016 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Florida, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The primary elections for both the Republicans and Democrats took place on August 30, 2016.
David Wilson Jolly is an American attorney, former lobbyist, and formerly Republican politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 13th congressional district from 2014 to 2017. Having served as general counsel to his predecessor, Republican Bill Young, Jolly won a January 2014 special election for Young's seat. He was reelected in November 2014 but was defeated in 2016 by Democrat Charlie Crist. After leaving office, Jolly became a prominent Republican critic of President Donald Trump. In September 2018, Jolly announced he had left the Republican Party.
The 2018 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor of Florida, alongside an election to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and other state and local elections. Incumbent two-term Republican governor Rick Scott was term-limited and could not run for a third term, and he successfully ran for Florida's Class I Senate seat.
The 2018 United States Senate election in Florida was held on November 6, 2018, alongside a gubernatorial election, elections to the U.S. House of Representatives and other state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson ran for re-election to a fourth term, but was narrowly defeated by Republican Governor Rick Scott. The election was the closest Senate race in the state's history.
Ana Violeta Navarro-Cárdenas is a Nicaraguan-American political strategist and commentator. She appears on various television programs and news outlets, including CNN, CNN en Español, ABC News, and Telemundo. She is also a co-host of the daytime talk show The View, garnering Daytime Emmy Award nominations for her work.
Ashley Brooke Moody is an American attorney and politician serving as the Florida attorney general since January 2019. Moody previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney and a circuit court judge in Hillsborough County.
Anthony Frank Sabatini is an American attorney and former politician who served as a member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 32nd district from 2018 to 2022. He was a candidate in the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Florida for Florida's 7th congressional district, losing the Republican primary to Cory Mills.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Florida were held on November 3, 2020, to elect the 27 U.S. representatives from Florida, one from each of the state's 27 congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the U.S. Senate, and various state and local elections.
The 2024 United States Senate election in Florida will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Florida. Incumbent one-term Republican Senator Rick Scott was elected with 50.05% of the vote in 2018. He is running for re-election to a second term in office.
The 2022 United States Senate election in Florida was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Florida. Incumbent Republican Senator Marco Rubio won re-election to a third term, defeating Democratic nominee Val Demings in a landslide. Rubio was first elected in 2010, filling the seat of appointed Senator George LeMieux. Rubio won re-election to a third term, becoming the first Republican to do so in Florida history.
The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee (PAC) founded in December 2019 by moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members who oppose U.S. President Donald Trump and Trumpism. During the 2020 presidential election, it aimed to prevent the re-election of President Trump, and to defeat incumbent Republican candidates running for re-election who had been loyalists to Trump. In April 2020, the committee endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. As of 2023, the committee is focused on preventing a non-consecutive re-election of Trump in the 2024 presidential election.