![]() |
Tara Setmayer | |
---|---|
Born | Tara Olivia Setmayer September 9, 1975 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Education | Paramus High School, New Jersey |
Alma mater | George Washington University (BA) |
Years active | 1998–present |
Employer(s) | CNN, ABC |
Political party | Republican (1993–2020) Independent (2020–present) |
Website | Official website |
Tara Olivia Setmayer [1] (born September 9, 1975) is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Seneca Project. She is a former CNN political commentator, contributor to ABC News and former GOP communications director on Capitol Hill. She has appeared on ABC's The View , [2] ABC's Good Morning America , and on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher . On January 9, 2020, Setmayer was named as a Harvard Institute of Politics Spring 2020 Resident Fellow. Also in January 2020, she joined The Lincoln Project, where she served as a Senior Advisor and host of the live show The Breakdown alongside co-founder Rick Wilson, on the organization's streaming channel, LPTV, until June 2024.
Setmayer is a University of Virginia Center for Politics Resident Scholar (2020-present.) In collaboration with the Center for Politics, she narrated the 3-part documentary, Dismantling Democracy, which aired nationally on PBS stations in September 2020 and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
After spending 27 years in political communications with the Republican Party, Setmayer publicly left the GOP in November 2020 after Donald Trump refused to concede the election to Joe Biden.
Setmayer was born in 1975 in Queens, New York, but raised in Paramus, a borough of Bergen County in northern New Jersey. [3] She is an only child, raised by a single mom, Deborah, who had heen a Broadway dancer. [4] Deborah was 21 and single when Tara was born, and left her career to raise Tara. [5]
Tara's family has been longtime residents of Paramus. Her grandfather, Emil Setmayer, served 40 years with the Paramus Police Department, retiring as captain, and also spent 71 years with the Paramus Company 03 Volunteer Fire Department. She was educated at Paramus High School, a public high school in Bergen County, New Jersey, from which she graduated in 1993, followed by The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in political science with a focus on public policy and journalism.
Setmayer is of mixed heritage: Her mother is of German and Italian descent and her father is of Afro-Guatemalan descent. [6]
In the early 2000s, Setmayer served as a former research fellow and communications specialist for the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education (CURE), a non-profit organization dealing with the impact of social policies on America's inner cities and the poor. She also served as a political trainer for GOPAC, a conservative organization specializing in educating, organizing and training grassroots Republicans intending to run for public office. [7]
For over two years, Setmayer served as a community liaison advocating on a variety of issues including affordable housing and services for the chronically homeless and children in South Florida where she co-founded a faith-based homeless program.
From 2006 to 2013, Setmayer worked in the U.S. House of Representatives as the Communications Director for Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, during which she handled immigration and federal law enforcement policy issues, and led the national effort to free Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean through a presidential commutation. [7]
She was a regular panelist on the women's issues program To the Contrary on PBS, and was featured in several local and national publications including The Wall Street Journal , The Hill newspaper where she was included in the publication's annual 50 Most Beautiful list in 2010, and Ebony magazine, on terrestrial radio syndication and satellite, News & Notes and Tell Me More on NPR and XM Radio. [7] As a media commentator, she has appeared on a range of television programs on CNN, CNN International, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC and HBO. [7]
In 2017, Setmayer was named as a board director for Stand Up Republic, a non profit organization formed in the wake of the 2016 election of Donald Trump to unite Americans behind the defense of democratic norms, ideals and institutions.
Setmayer focuses her "tell it like it is" commentary and analysis on political issues that impact America's future. During the 2016 presidential election cycle, she earned the reputation of being an outspoken conservative critic of Donald Trump and challenged his surrogates on the veracity of their claims. Vulture.com recognized her as one of 2016's "Top 20 Election Coverage Stars" on TV.
Prior to joining ABC, Setmayer was a CNN political commentator from 2014 through the 2016 presidential election cycle, regularly appearing on CNN's New Day , Erin Burnett OutFront , Anderson Cooper 360° and CNN Tonight with Don Lemon news analysis shows, and through 2017 subsequently appeared on CNN political panels, where she was credited as an ABC News guest contributor. Setmayer rejoined CNN as a commentator in January 2018 through the inauguration of President Biden in January 2021. Today, she regularly appears as an on-air commentator on MSNBC and various other news outlets in the US and abroad.
She has written for Cosmopolitan , Bloomberg Opinion, The Daily Beast , NBC Think and CNN.com. She is a frequent guest-host for The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM's POTUS channel.
In 2013, Setmayer married federal law enforcement officer Marcelle Love. Both are fans of the New York Giants; their cat is named Tiki. [8] They live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. [9]
Tara was previously married to John Setmayer, with whom she shares son Will and daughter Cate. [10]
Paul Edward Begala is an American political consultant and political commentator, best known as the former advisor to President Bill Clinton.
Christopher Wallace is an American broadcast journalist. He is known for his tough and wide-ranging interviews, for which he is often compared to his father, 60 Minutes journalist Mike Wallace. Over his 50-year career in journalism he has been a correspondent, moderator, or anchor on CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News, and now CNN. In 2018 he was ranked one of America's most trusted TV news anchors. Wallace has won three Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, a George Polk Award, the duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award, and a Paul White lifetime achievement award.
Mark Evan Halperin is an American journalist, television cable host, and commentator for Newsmax TV. Halperin previously had worked as the political director for ABC News, where he also served as the editor of the Washington, D.C., newsletter The Note. In 2010, Halperin joined MSNBC, becoming the senior political analyst and a contributor. Along with John Heilemann, Halperin served as co-managing editor of Bloomberg Politics. Halperin and Heilemann co-wrote Game Change and Double Down: Game Change 2012, were co-hosts of MSNBC and Bloomberg's With All Due Respect, and produced and co-starred with Mark McKinnon in Showtime's The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, which followed the presidential candidates behind the scenes of their campaigns in the 2016 United States Presidential Election.
Nicolle Wallace is an American television political commentator and author. She is the anchor of the MSNBC news and politics program Deadline: White House and a former co-host of the ABC daytime talk show The View. Wallace is a political analyst for MSNBC and NBC News. She was previously a frequent on-air contributor to the programs Today, The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, and Morning Joe, before hosting her own program on MSNBC.
Morning Joe is an American morning news talk show, which airs weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on the cable news channel MSNBC. It features former US Representative (Independent) Joe Scarborough reporting and discussing the news of the day in a panel format with co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, who regularly co-hosts from Tuesdays to Fridays, along with recurring and special guests.
Sarah Elizabeth Cupp is an American television host, political commentator, and writer. In August 2017, she began hosting S.E. Cupp: Unfiltered, a political panel show, co-hosted by Andrew Levy, on HLN and later CNN.
Reinhold Richard "Reince" Priebus is an American lawyer and politician who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2011 to 2017 and as White House chief of staff during the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency.
Zerlina Maxwell is an American cable television host, political analyst, commentator, speaker, and writer. She writes and speaks about culture, gender inequity, sexual consent, racism, and similar topics from a liberal perspective. She describes herself as a survivor of sexual assault and a "survivor activist".
Elise Marie Stefanik is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 21st congressional district. As chair of the House Republican Conference since 2021, she is the fourth-ranking House Republican. Stefanik's district covers most of the North Country and the Adirondack Mountains, some of the outer suburbs of Utica and the Capital District in New York. In addition to being the first woman to occupy her House seat, Stefanik was 30 when first elected to the House in 2014, making her the youngest woman elected to Congress at the time.
Elizabeth Mair is an American political and communications consultant. She has worked as a journalist and commentator. She was the Online Communications Director at the 2008 Republican National Committee and has been a political strategist for a number of Republicans.
Kayleigh McEnany is an American conservative political commentator, television personality, and writer who served the administration of Donald Trump as the 33rd White House press secretary from April 2020 to January 2021.
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.
Donald Trump, a member of the Republican Party, unsuccessfully sought reelection in the 2020 United States presidential election. He was inaugurated as president of the United States on January 20, 2017, and filed for re-election with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on the same day.
Ed O'Keefe is an American senior White House and political correspondent with CBS News. He joined CBS in 2018 after working nearly 13 years at The Washington Post.
Real News Update was a weekly webcast that lasted from July 30, 2017, to March 15, 2020, to support the Presidency of Donald Trump and his 2020 presidential campaign. The show was available on Donald Trump's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts and was hosted by Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, wife of Eric Trump. It was presented in the form of a short newscast lasting from one to five minutes and delivered updates on the accomplishments of the Presidency of Donald Trump.
Paris Dennard is a Republican political commentator, columnist, and communications strategist. He previously worked from 2005 to 2009 in the White House of President George W. Bush, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund for over four years as the Senior Director of Strategic Communications. He has appeared as a conservative commentator on many national outlets including Fox News, Black News Channel, Newsmax, CNN and NPR.
Alyssa Farah Griffin is an American political strategist and television personality. She was the White House Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to the President in 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump. In addition to appearing on CNN as a commentator, she is a co-host of the talk show The View, for which she received a nomination for a Daytime Emmy Award.
Tim Miller is an American political consultant, political commentator, and writer. He was communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, and subsequently became a critic of President Donald Trump.
The 46th and incumbent U.S. president Joe Biden has seen multiple efforts by some members of the Republican Party to impeach him. An impeachment inquiry into Biden was launched in September 2023, without a vote, by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who designated three House committees led by James Comer, chairman of House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. A number of prominent Republican lawmakers, along with Donald Trump and some of his political allies, have indicated the motivation behind efforts to impeach Biden is also driven by resentment over Trump's previous two impeachments.
My mother is German-Italian, my father is from Guatemala, but I have, you know, I'm dark skinned. So what does that mean? And no one really knew.