 | This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(August 2024) |
Christina Pushaw | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christina Maria Pushaw September 3, 1990 [1] |
| Education | University of Southern California (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Political party | Republican |
Christina Maria Pushaw (born September 3, 1990) [2] is an American political aide, serving as rapid response director for the 2024 presidential campaign of Ron DeSantis. She is a member of the Republican Party.
Pushaw was born in Washington, where her father worked as a lawyer at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle. [1] She spent most of her childhood in Malibu, California [3] [1] and Florida where her father worked as a visiting professor to Florida State University in 1999. [4] As a teenager, her father taught law at Pepperdine University. She attended a private high school. [1]
She obtained a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Southern California in 2012. [5]
In 2017, she earned a master's degree in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. [5] [1]
Pushaw volunteered for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign; he supported Georgia during its war with Russia [5] saying "today we are all Georgians." [6] During 2012, she volunteered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where she encountered Mikheil Saakashvili, the President of Georgia, during a speech he gave and other appearances over the following year around Simi Valley, California. Saakashvili said that Reagan "defines who we [Georgians] are." [1] [6]
For a year after she graduated she worked as a recruiter at an IT firm in Pasadena, California. [1]
In 2013, she moved to Georgia, originally intending to be part of a Saakashvili program for native English speakers to teach English, but ended up working in few different educational positions. [6] [1] She also formed a Georgian non-profit, New Leaders Initiative, to teach young Georgians about democracy and international affairs. [5] Pushaw wrote an article "The Manchurian Candidate” in a former Russian Georgia publication. [7] During 2013 and 2014, Pushaw's peers and colleagues said that she said she traveled with Saakashvili and showed pictures she had taken with him telling them she had just been to Batumi. [1]
In 2015, she left Georgia and moved to Washington, D.C. to attend graduate school. [1] [5] One of her peers said that she had told them she was born in Ukraine, where Saakashvili had served in the military and attended college, and had been adopted by Americans. Giuli Alasania, Saakashvili's mother said that Pushaw told her the same story. [1] While doing her graduate field research in Ukraine, her class met with Saakashvili. [6]
In 2017, Pushaw began working at a firm founded by Charles Koch in public relations called America at In Pursuit Of. From June 2017 to August 2019, Pushaw worked for Stand Together, a philanthropic organization also founded by Koch as an international political consultant. [5] [8] At Stand Together, she said she worked on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the passing of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. [8] In late 2017, Pushaw organized a pro-Saakashvili rally at the Embassy of Ukraine. In the resume she later provided to Ron DeSantis, she wrote that she worked as his communications and media advisor part-time during December 2017. [1] She volunteered for his staff during 2018 [9] and joined his staff full-time in 2019. She worked for him until 2020. [8] [10]
In June 2022, the Department of Justice reached out to Pushaw and asked to register as a foreign agent per the Foreign Agents Registration Act. [10] She hired former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael R. Sherwin, to represent her for the FARA registration. [11] The act requires "foreign agents", defined as individuals or entities engaged in domestic lobbying or advocacy for foreign governments, organizations, or persons ("foreign principals"), to register with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and disclose their relationship, activities, and related financial compensation. [12]
Pushaw worked as an freelance journalist and had work published in national conservative outlets like The National Interest and Human Events . [4] In February 2021, Pushaw published an article in Human Events criticizing Rebekah Jones, a Florida Department of Health employee who was fired in May 2020 for insubordination. [13] It was the first national story to point out holes in Jones claims and brought her to the attention of DeSantis' administration. [4]
In March 2021, Pushaw wrote a letter to the governor's office expressing interest in working for DeSantis' communication team. [14] She was then hired as press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in May 2021. [14] Matt Dixon with Politico noted she had an unorthodox and aggressive style and was hostile to media outlets perceived to be critical of DeSantis. [15] She worked in the position until August 2022 before leaving to join DeSantis's 2022 gubernatorial reelection and later 2024 presidential campaign teams as rapid response director. [15]
In August 2021, Pushaw's Twitter account was locked for 12 hours for "harassing behavior". [16] She demanded the Associated Press change a report that a DeSantis donor had invested in a COVID-19 treatment, Regeneron, that DeSantis had been promoting. [16] She called for her social media followers to "drag them" but said she did not mean to call for violence, that it was a slang term, and she deleted the tweet so as to not be misunderstood. [16] Viktorya Vilk with PEN America did confirm that one slang definition defines "drag them" as "to roast (make fun of/mock) someone very hard"; however, it also seems to "imply or encourage people to go on the attack." [16]
In November 2021, she claimed that the Republic of Georgia's decision to implement a vaccine passport system might have been influenced by a recent meeting between the country's government and a member of the Rothschild family, despite the fact that the meeting in question had taken place several months before the decision was announced. She later retracted the claim after stating that it had been misinterpreted. [17]
In January 2022, she deleted a social media post after facing backlash. [18] In the post, she questioned if protestors wearing Nazi symbols were genuine or there to generate backlash, similar to an incident the previous year meant to smear Glenn Youngkin who was running for governor of Virginia. [18]
She posted on social media in support of the Parental Rights in Education Act, calling the "Don't Say Gay" nickname given by its opponents inaccurate: "The bill that liberals inaccurately call 'Don't Say Gay' would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill. If you're against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don't denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn't make the rules." [19] Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith responded, stating it was a bigotted attack against LGBTQ people and calling for her to resign. [19] In a statement to AP News, she stated "I have never stated that all groomers are LGBT, all LGBT people are groomers, or anything of that nature." [20]
In September 2022, Pushaw gave a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Miami, Florida. [21] In her speech, Pushaw suggested conservatives be aware of "media activists" who "see themselves not as journalists, not as reporters, not as investigators but as activists, but as advocates, as political operatives, as gatekeepers and as arbiters of truth. Like they believe that they can define reality. If, you know, they stick to their talking points and censor and attack all those and discredit those dissenting views." [21] Ron DeSantis was one of the keynote speakers at the event. [22]
Salome Zourabichvili is a French-Georgian politician and former diplomat, currently serving as the fifth president of Georgia, in office since December 2018. She is the first woman to be elected as Georgia's president, a position she will occupy for a term of six years. As a result of constitutional changes coming into effect in 2024, Zourabichvili is expected to be Georgia's last popularly elected president; future heads of state are to be elected indirectly by a parliamentary college of electors.
Jared Evan Moskowitz is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 23rd congressional district since 2023. As a member of the Democratic Party, Moskowitz served on the Broward County Commission from 2021 to 2022 and as director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management from 2019 to 2021. Before his appointment to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, he served in the Florida House of Representatives, representing the Coral Springs-Parkland area in northern Broward County from 2012 to 2019.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Florida have federal protections, but many face legal difficulties on the state level that are not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity became legal in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas on June 26, 2003, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy law. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since January 6, 2015. Discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations is outlawed following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. In addition, several cities and counties, comprising about 55 percent of Florida's population, have enacted anti-discrimination ordinances. These include Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and West Palm Beach, among others. Conversion therapy is also banned in a number of cities in the state, mainly in the Miami metropolitan area, but has been struck down by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In September 2023, Lake Worth Beach, Florida became an official "LGBT sanctuary city" to protect and defend LGBT rights.
Ronald Dion DeSantis is an American politician serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Florida. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the U.S. Representative from Florida's 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2018. DeSantis was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, withdrawing his candidacy in January 2024.
Jill Casey DeSantis is an American former news journalist, television show host, and the current first lady of Florida as the wife of Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Laurel Frances Lee is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representatives for Florida's 15th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, she was a judge on Florida's Thirteenth Judicial Circuit from 2013 to 2019 and was the 30th Secretary of State of Florida from 2019 to 2022.
The 2022 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Florida, alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Party governor Ron DeSantis won re-election in a landslide and defeated the Democratic Party nominee, former U.S. representative Charlie Crist, who previously served as governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican and later as an Independent. No Democrat has been elected governor of Florida since 1994.
Julia Nesheiwat is an American national security adviser who served as the 10th homeland security advisor in the Trump administration from 2020 to 2021. She also served in the Bush and Obama administrations.
On March 1, 2020, the U.S. state of Florida officially reported its first two COVID-19 cases in Manatee and Hillsborough counties. There is evidence, however, that community spread of COVID-19 first began in Florida much earlier, perhaps as early as the first week of January, with as many as 171 people in Florida who had shown symptoms now identified with COVID-19, prior to receiving confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By March 11, the CDC saw evidence to conclude that community spread of the virus had occurred within the state.
Rebekah Jones is an American geographer, data scientist, and activist. She is known for her COVID-19 activism in Florida, allegations against the Florida Department of Health and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, an unsubstantiated whistleblower complaint after being fired, and several legal issues. She was referred to as a whistleblower and awarded with several honors, but many public officials and media outlets labeled her a conspiracy theorist after investigation into her and her allegations.
Renatha Sian Francis is an American lawyer who has served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Florida since 2022. She previously served as a circuit judge in Palm Beach County from 2019 to 2022.
The political positions of Ron DeSantis have been recorded from his 2012 election to the United States House of Representatives and his tenure as representative, the 2016 United States Senate election in Florida, and during his tenure as governor of Florida. DeSantis is considered a conservative Republican.
The Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly referred to as the Don't Say Gay law, is a Florida statute passed in 2022 that regulates public schools in Florida. The law is most notable for its controversial sections that prohibit public schools from having "classroom discussion" or giving "classroom instruction" about sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade or in any manner deemed to be against state standards in all grades; prohibits public schools from adopting procedures or student support forms that maintain the confidentiality of a disclosure by a student, including of the gender identity or sexual orientation of a student, from parents; and requires public schools to bear all the costs of all lawsuits filed by aggrieved parents.
Libs of TikTok is a handle for various far-right and anti-LGBT social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik, a former real estate agent. Raichik uses the accounts to repost content created by left-wing and LGBT people on TikTok, and on other social-media platforms, often with hostile, mocking, or derogatory commentary. The accounts promote hate speech and transphobia, and spread false claims, especially relating to medical care of transgender children. The Twitter account, also known by the handle @LibsofTikTok, has over 3.5 million followers as of September 2024 and has become influential among American conservatives and the political right. Libs of TikTok's social-media accounts have received several temporary suspensions and a permanent suspension from TikTok.
Susan Summerall Wiles is an American political consultant who, as of April 2024, has been serving as a senior advisor to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
Whitney Chewston, also known as the homophobic dog, is a miniature dachshund who became the subject of an internet meme in 2021. An Instagram page for the dog has gained a significant following with over 180,000 followers as of September 2024.
The 2024 Florida Republican presidential primary was held on March 19, 2024, as part of the Republican Party primaries for the 2024 presidential election. 125 delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention were allocated on a winner-take-all basis. The contest was held alongside primaries in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio.
On May 24, 2023, Ron DeSantis, the 46th and current governor of Florida, announced his candidacy for the 2024 United States presidential election. On January 21, 2024, DeSantis suspended his campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump. DeSantis's campaign finished after having won nine delegates from the Republican National Convention in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries.
Ron DeSantis has served as the 46th governor of Florida since January 8, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Andrew Gillum in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election. As governor, DeSantis resisted taking many of the measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 that various other state governments implemented, such as face-mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and vaccination requirements. During the pandemic, Florida experienced above-average economic growth. DeSantis cut state-government spending, which, combined with federal stimulus payments and high sales-tax revenue, led to the largest budget surplus in Florida history. He engaged in recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole, and oversaw the passage of the controversial Parental Rights in Education Act. He was reelected in a landslide in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election; his 19.4% margin of victory over Charlie Crist was the state's largest in 40 years. He has generally governed as a conservative.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)