Margaret Hoover

Margaret Hoover
Hoover in 2011
Born Margaret Claire Hoover
(1977-12-11) December 11, 1977
Colorado, U.S.
Nationality American
Alma mater Bryn Mawr College (BA)
Spouse(s)
John Avlon (m. 2009)
Children 2
Family Allan Hoover (grandfather)
Herbert Hoover (great-grandfather)
Website margarethoover.com

Margaret Claire Hoover[1] (born December 11, 1977) is an American political commentator, political strategist, media personality, feminist, gay rights activist, and author. She is the best-selling author of the book American Individualism: How A New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party[2] published by Crown Forum in July 2011. Hoover is host of the relaunched PBS show Firing Line.

Early life

Hoover was born in Colorado, the daughter of Jean (Williams), a flight attendant, and Andrew Hoover, a mining engineer.[1][3] She is a great-granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. President.

Hoover received primary education at Graland Country Day School, an independent co-educational day school in Denver, Colorado. She earned a B.A. in Spanish literature with a minor in political science from Bryn Mawr College in 2001. She also attended Davidson College for two years, where she was a member of Warner Hall.

Career

Hoover worked in the White House for the administration of George W. Bush as the Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.[4] She worked on President Bush's re-election campaign in 2004 and was Deputy Finance Director[5] to Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid in 2006–2007. She also worked as a staffer[6] on Capitol Hill for Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart and as Advisor to the Deputy Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal,[7] The Daily News,[8] The Daily Beast[9] and FoxNews.com.[10]

In October 2011, she debated Howard Dean and Jeff Maddrick in an IQ Squared Debate at New York University[11] over the sustainability of current entitlement obligations to a new generation of Americans.

She is on the Board of Overseers at Stanford University's Hoover Institution,[12] and on the boards of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association and the Belgian American Educational Foundation. Hoover serves on the Advisory Council of The American Foundation for Equal Rights[13] and GOProud.

In January 2013, she helped found American Unity Fund,[14] a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the cause of freedom for gay and lesbian Americans. American Unity fund works in partnership with other national LGBT organizations to help mobilize Republican support for marriage and non-discrimination, and other LGBT issues at the state and federal level.

Hoover's work is committed to publicizing her great-grandfather Herbert Hoover's legacy as a humanitarian and pioneer of the international non-governmental organization, as well as his many other achievements. She appeared in a PBS documentary, "Landslide",[15] in 2010.

Media

From 2008 to 2012, Hoover was a Fox News contributor where she appeared on Bill O'Reilly's top rated show The O'Reilly Factor. In the branded segment "Culture Warrior", she jousted with Bill O'Reilly on a range of topics from entertainment news, to popular culture, to Hollywood and politics. Since 2012, she has been a political contributor for CNN.[16] In April 2018 it was announced she will host the PBS show Firing Line.[17]

She has been a frequent guest on Bill Maher's Real Time on HBO, and has appeared on NBC's Today, CBS's The Early Show, ABC's Good Morning America, at MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, and C-SPAN Book TV.

Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal,[18] The New York Daily News,[19] The Daily Beast, CNN.com,[20][21] and FoxNews.com.[22]

In 2014, she hosted the Toyota Solutions Studio[23] at the Women In The World conference held at Lincoln Center where Hoover interviewed several participants including comedian Sarah Silverman and her sister Rabbi Susan Silverman, the Peruvian poet Senna, Ambassador Fatuma Ndangiza, and United Nations Under-Secretary General Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Advocate for gay rights

She is an advocate for gay rights, including gay marriage, arguing that individual freedom and marriage are conservative values.[24] She testified before the Maryland State Senate on behalf of gay marriage in January 2011, took an active role in the 2012 battle to win gay marriage in New York,[25] and has lobbied New Hampshire legislators[26] encouraging them not to repeal freedom to marry. She has been profiled in The Advocate as "exactly the brand of straight ally we need right now".[27] Chad Griffin asked her to serve on the Advisory Board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the non-profit organization funding the Prop 8 Trial (Hollingsworth v. Perry), and is a co-chair and founder of the group Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry. In 2014, Hoover introduced Evan Wolfson at the 10th anniversary celebration of Freedom To Marry.[28] She was introduced by Cynthia Nixon who said Hoover "appeals to the pragmatism of the millennial generation, she believes constitutionally guaranteed rights ought to transcend left versus right, and Democrat versus Republican, and she does so with savvy, skill and style."[28] She serves as president of the American Unity PAC,[29] which supports pro-LGBT Republican Congressional candidates, and the American Unity Fund, which supports the work of pro-freedom Republicans nationally.

In 2013, Hoover was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage in Hollingsworth v. Perry.[30]

Personal life

Hoover is married to fellow CNN contributor[31] John Avlon,[1] a former Rudy Giuliani speechwriter, senior columnist for Newsweek, and former Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast.[32] They have a son, Jack, born in 2013, and a daughter, Toula Lou, born in 2015.[33][34]

Bibliography

  • American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party, Margaret Hoover, 2011, Crown Forum ( ISBN 978-0307718150)

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Margaret Hoover, John Avlon". The New York Times. 2009-11-08.
  2. ↑ Hoover, Margaret (2011). American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party. Crown Forum.
  3. ↑ Allen, Anne Beiser (1 January 2000). "An Independent Woman: The Life of Lou Henry Hoover". Greenwood Publishing Group. Retrieved 20 April 2017 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Twocents, Polly. "Author Margaret Hoover Sure to Ruffle Feathers at Barnes and Noble Tonight". The Iowa Republican.
  5. ↑ Smith, Chris. "Giuliani Loses a Second Bushie".
  6. ↑ "Legistorm". Legistorm.
  7. ↑ Margaret, Hoover. "How the GOP Can Win Young Voters". The Wall Street Journal.
  8. ↑ Hoover, Margaret. "The conservative case for gay marriage: GOP is not the party of intolerance". New York: Daily News.
  9. ↑ Hoover, Margaret. "The Return of Big Government". The Daily Beast.
  10. ↑ Hoover, Margaret. "Fox News/Margaret Hoover: My Fellow Conservatives, Think Carefully About Your Opposition to Gay Marriage". American Foundation for Equal Rights.
  11. ↑ Intelligence Squared. "GRANDMA'S BENEFITS IMPERIL JUNIOR'S FUTURE". Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  12. ↑ Hoover Institution. "Board of Overseers".
  13. ↑ American Foundation for Equal Rights. "Advisory Council Board". American Foundation for Equal Rights.
  14. ↑ "A Note from Jeff & Margaret".
  15. ↑ "Herbert Hoover: Landslide". PBS Presents. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
  16. ↑ "Margaret Hoover Joins CNN as Political Contributor". Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  17. ↑ "'Firing Line': PBS Reloads Public-Affairs Show With Host Margaret Hoover". Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  18. ↑ "How the GOP Can Win Young Voters".
  19. ↑ "The conservative case for gay marriage: GOP is not the party of intolerance".
  20. ↑ "Opinion: Failure to attract millennials is sinking the GOP".
  21. ↑ "GOP begins to 'get it' on same-sex marriage".
  22. ↑ "Why I'm Joining the Fight for Marriage Equality".
  23. ↑ "Rwandan Leaders: Toyota Solutions Studio".
  24. ↑ Margaret, Hoover. "The conservative case for gay marriage: GOP is not the party of intolerance". New York: The Daily News.
  25. ↑ Bolcer, Julie. "New York Senate Republicans Thanked for Marriage With $1.2 Million".
  26. ↑ Press Release Archive. "FOX News Commentator Margaret Hoover, following NHRFE PAC Legislative Breakfast". New Hampshire Insider.
  27. ↑ Advocate Contributors. "A New Conservative Agenda". The Advocate.
  28. 1 2 "Margaret Hoover Introduces Evan Wolfson at 'Cheers to 10 Years' Event". YouTube.
  29. ↑ "American Unity PAC".
  30. ↑ "The Pro-Freedom Republicans Are Coming: 131 Sign Gay Marriage Brief". The Daily Beast. February 28, 2013. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  31. ↑ "John Avlon". The Moderate Voice.
  32. ↑ "John Avlon". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  33. ↑ ""Jack" joins Hoover lineage".
  34. ↑ "Hoovers welcome Toula Lou".
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