Background

Stuart Stevens was born in 1953, in Jackson, Mississippi, United States.

Education

Stevens studied at such educational institutions as Colorado College, Pembroke College in Oxford, Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English, the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Theater, Film and Television, as well as at the American Film Institute, from where he received a diploma.

Career

Stevens was profiled in the New Yorker in 1994, where it was said that “no single label fits him and cited his iconoclastic background and array of interests as evidence." He founded the Stuart Stevens Group after producing his first television commercials for a friend who was running for Congress in the late 1970s. For the 1994 elections, Stevens’s firm produced commercials for sixteen Republican candidates, fourteen of whom won election. Instead of using actors or politicians in the ads, Stevens employs real people, citing their credibility with the voting public — "they want something they can believe", he told the New Yorker.

Stevens worked on Thad Cochran’s campaigns and has proceeded to help elect more governors and United States Senators, as a Republican media consultant. In 1996, Stevens also worked for Bob Dole's presidential campaign. He was part of George W. Bush's media team in 2000 and 2004. Three years later Stevens and Russell Schriefer had worked for John McCain's election campaign. Additionally, he worked for election campaigns of such politicians as Sali Berisha in Albania, Joseph Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rob Portman in Ohio, Roy Blunt in Missouri and Dan Coats in Indiana.

Stevens was the lead strategist in Governor Romney's Presidential campaign in 2011-2012.

Stevens is a founding partner in Strategic, Partners & Media, is a contributor to The Daily Beast, and is currently working on a new show for Home Box Office (HBO).

Stevens’s secondary career as a writer is as diverse as his resume. He has penned scripts for the critically acclaimed television dramas Northern Exposure and I'll Fly Away, as well as for dramatic television series K. Street and Commander in Chief. His first book, published in 1988, is a report of his travels though a corner of the world that remains both mysterious and mythic—far western China. Night Train To Turkistan: Modern Adventures along China’s Ancient Silk Road recounts Steven’s real-life experiences journeying with three friends along the legendary trade route. Their purpose was to recreate a trek undertaken by 1930s travel writers Peter Flaming and Ella Maillart. The difficulty of the terrain and the obstinacy of the Chinese bureaucracy provided contemporary chronicler Stevens with opportunity for keen observation and wry comments.

Obstacles and unusual predicaments also provided Stevens with anecdotal fodder for his next work, Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure (1989). As a favor for a friend, Stevens agreed to fetch a LandRover in the Central African Republic and drive it though Africa to France. His encounters with hippos, thieves, malaria, dysentery, gentle and generous Africans, and breathtaking scenery form the basis of his narrative.

Stevens’s third book was his first novel, and lands his readers far closer to home, despite its fictional premise, than his previous works. Scorched Earth: A Political Love Story, published in 1994, draws upon Stevens’s insider knowledge of political campaigns and media strategies in depicting the dramatic last days of a fictitious Senate campaign in a Southern state.

Stevens returned to travel writing for his 1997 book Feeding Frenzy: Across Europe in Search of the Perfect Meal. Here he recounts his adventures in attempting to dine at nearly thirty of Europe’s Michelin three-star restaurants in just under a month. His other books include The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear, The Big Enchilada and The Last Season: A Father, a Son and a Lifetime of College Football.

In addition, Stevens is the author of articles and essays to such periodicals as The New York Times, Esquire, Outside, The Washington Post, Food & Wine and others.

Achievements

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  For twenty-five years, Stevens has been the lead strategist and media consultant for some of the nation’s political campaigns including President George W. Bush, Senators Rob Portman and Roy Blunt, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.
  
  In 2013, he became a founding partner in Strategic Partners & Media, the consulting firm with the best record in statewide races.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Last Season

    (In this book a son returns to his native South to spend a...)

    2015
  • Malaria Dreams

    (While attempting to transfer a friend's Land Rover from t...)

    1989
  • Feeding Frenzy

    (A popular travel writer and his female weight-lifting par...)

    1997
  • Night Train to Turkistan

    (The first account of travel in Chinese Turkistan, closed ...)

    1988
  • The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear

    (A dark comedy set at a contested Republican convention, w...)

    2016
  • Scorched Earth: A Political Love Story

    (The story of a dynamic Southern family and the dramatic, ...)

    1994
  • The Big Enchilada 2001

Politics

Stevens was one of the most prominent Republicans to oppose Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election predicting Trump would lose big in the election.

Personality

Stevens is an endurance sports enthusiast. He has ridden the legendary Paris-Brest-Paris cycling race and skied the last 100 miles to the North Pole.

Connections

Susie Stevens is Stuart Stevens's wife.

Wife:

Susie Stevens