Douglas Schoen (born June 27, 1953) is an American lawyer, political analyst, author, lobbyist, and commentator.

Education

Schoen attended

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , countr ...

in New York City. While still a high school student, he canvassed the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

for

Dick Morris Richard Samuel Morris (born November 28, 1948) is an American political author and commentator who previously worked as a pollster, political campaign consultant, and general political consultant. A friend and advisor to Bill Clinton during ...

. He graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

(''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'') and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

. Schoen went to high school with

Mark Penn Mark J. Penn (born January 15, 1954) is an American businessman, pollster, political strategist, and author. Penn is chairman and chief executive officer of Stagwell, a marketing group created upon the merger of Stagwell Marketing Group—a priva ...

and then worked together with him on ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

''.

Career

Schoen currently serves on the Advisory Council of Represent.Us, a

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

anti-corruption organization. It was reported in 2019 that he joined Mike Bloomberg's exploratory 2020

presidential campaign President most commonly refers to: * President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

as a pollster.

Consulting work

While still at Harvard, Schoen first worked as an independent political consultant for Louis Gigante, who ran for

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, the performance of ...

in 1973. In 1977, he co-founded the political consulting firm

Penn, Schoen & Berland PSB Insights (formerly Penn, Schoen & Berland) is a consultancy firm founded in 1997 by Mark Penn and Douglas Schoen. History Company founders Mark Penn and Douglas Schoen met at the Horace Mann prep school, where they were both students, and ...

with political strategists

Michael Berland Mike Berland (born April 6, 1968) is founder and CEO of Decode_M, an insights and strategy firm. Prior to founding Decode_M in 2016, he was CEO of Edelman Berland, the global intelligence, research, and analytics division of Edelman. Before joining ...

joined the firm in 1987. Schoen worked for the political campaigns of politicians including

Jay Rockefeller John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virg ...

Richard Shelby Richard Craig Shelby (born May 6, 1934) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Alabama. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 as a Democrat who later switched to the Republican Party in 1994, h ...

and

Evan Bayh Birch Evans Bayh III ( ; born December 26, 1955) is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States senator from Indiana from 1999 to 2011 and the 46th governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997. Bayh ...

. Following the 1994 United States elections, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

hired

, who brought on Schoen and Penn. Schoen worked on the 1996 campaign as well in survey analysis. Schoen also began doing corporate work beginning in the 1980s. In 2000, Ukrainian steel oligarch

Victor Pinchuk Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk ( uk, Віктор Михайлович Пінчук, ''Viktor Mykhailovych Pinchuk''; born 14 December 1960) is a Ukrainian businessman and oligarch. As of January 2016, ''Forbes'' ranked him as 1,250th on the list o ...

hired Schoen on a $40,000 per month retainer. In 2004, Schoen introduced Pinchuk to

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

. He also did work for the

Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2008 The 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton, then junior United States senator from New York, was announced on her website on January 20, 2007. Hillary Clinton was previously the First Lady of the United States and First Lady of ...

and later became associated with the People United Means Action movement of disaffected Clinton supporters who refused to support

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

. Schoen was a consultant for

Jeff Greene Jeff Greene (born December 10, 1954) is an American real estate entrepreneur. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was a candidate in the 2010 Senate election primaries in Florida. He was a candidate in the 2018 Florida Gubernatorial elec ...

in the 2010 Florida Senate election. The firm was sold to

WPP plc WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many compan ...

in 2001. Schoen left the firm later to work for news media. In 2010, Schoen hosted a fundraiser for

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

congressional candidate

John Gomez The 2010 congressional elections in New York were held on November 2, 2010 to determine representation from the state of New York in the United States House of Representatives. New York had 29 seats in the House. Representatives are elected to ...

. Pinchuk donated $13.1 million to the

Clinton Foundation The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was es ...

in the years after Schoen's introduction. In 2011, Schoen registered as a foreign agent lobbying on behalf of Pinchuk. Between September 2011 and November 2012, Schoen arranged nearly a dozen meetings between Pinchuk and senior State Department officials, including

Melanne Verveer Melanne Verveer is the executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security at Georgetown University. She is a founding partner of Seneca Point Global, a global women strategy firm and a co-founder of Seneca Women. Melann ...

. In September 2015, Pinchuk donated $150,000 to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in exchange for a 20-minute video appearance by

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

shown at a policy conference that year in Kiev. Michael Cohen solicited Schoen for the donation from Pinchuk, which was the largest outside donation the Trump Foundation received that year. In March 2017, former Trump aide

Monica Crowley Monica Elizabeth Crowley (born September 19, 1968) was the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. She has been a political commentator and lobbyist. She was a Fox News contributor, where she worked (with ...

registered as a foreign agent working for Pinchuk under Schoen's direction.

Media

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

hired Schoen as a political analyst in 2009 and

Newsmax Newsmax (Newsmax Media, Inc. or Newsmax.com, previously styled NewsMax) is an American right-wing to far-right cable news and digital media company founded by Christopher Ruddy on September 16, 1998. Newsmax Media divisions include its cable ...

hired Schoen as a columnist. In 2010, he authored a book on the

Tea Party movement The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defi ...

with

Scott Rasmussen Scott William Rasmussen (born March 30, 1956) is an American public opinion pollster and political analyst. He previously produced the ScottRasmussen.com Daily Tracking Poll, a gauge of American voters' political sentiment. He is editor-at-large ...

. He has been writing a regular column for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine beginning in July 2016 with a column "Donald Trump Through The Years".

Newsmax TV Newsmax TV is an American conservative television channel owned by Newsmax. The network primarily focuses on opinion-based talk shows. It carries a news/talk format throughout the day and night, with documentaries and films on weekends. During ...

announced that Schoen would be leaving

and joining them. On January 19, 2021, Schoen joined Newsmax TV as an Analyst.

Views

Schoen has identified as a member of the Democratic party, but has frequently criticized the party and taken positions on various political topics at odds with the party's views. Schoen's critics have called his identification as a Democrat "phony" and calculated to help his Fox News career.

Steve Benen Steve Benen (born May 15, 1973) is an American political writer, blogger, MSNBC contributor and producer of ''The Rachel Maddow Show'', for which he received two Emmy Awards in 2017. His first book, ''The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing ...

called Schoen the quintessential "Fox News Democrat" and said he is "actively hostile towards emocratsand the party's agenda." Schoen says that lower taxes would be a successful Democratic strategy, opposed President

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Pres ...

, and said that President Obama should not run for reelection in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

. He has stated that President Obama divided the country along partisan lines, and said that the

has been a "disaster" for the Democratic Party.Lee, MJ
Schoen warns W.H.: Don't back 'Occupy'
''Politico'', October 18, 2011.Schoen, Douglas E., and Patrick H. Caddell
"Opinion , One and done: To be a great president, Obama should not seek reelection in 2012"
''The Washington Post'', November 14, 2010. Schoen has been critical of the

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to t ...

protest movement. In a ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' op-ed, he wrote, "President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement—and it may cost them the 2012 election."Schoen, Douglas
"Polling the Occupy Wall Street Crowd: In interviews, protesters show that they are leftists out of step with most American voters. Yet Democrats are embracing them anyway"
''The Wall Street Journal'', October 18, 2011. He believes that the protesters represent "an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence," and that their common bond is "a deep commitment to left-wing policies." Schoen believes that the Democratic Party should not appeal to voters who support taxing oil companies and the rich, but rather to voters in the middle who want lower taxes. Schoen advocated against impeachment of Trump in an interview with

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

on January 26, 2021, claiming it was divisive and distracting.

Works

*''Enoch Powell and the Powellites'',

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

, 1977. *''The Power of the Vote: Electing Presidents, Overthrowing Dictators, and Promoting Democracy Around the World'',

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

, 2007 *''Declaring independence: the beginning of the end of the two-party system'', New York:

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, 2008, , *''The threat closer to home: Hugo Chávez and the war against America'', New York: Free Press, 2009, , *''Hopelessly divided : the new crisis in American politics and what it means for 2012 and beyond'', Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012, , *''The Nixon effect: how Richard Nixon's presidency fundamentally changed American politics'', New York; London:

Encounter Books Encounter Books is a book publisher in the United States known for publishing conservative authors. It was named for ''Encounter'', the now defunct literary magazine founded by Irving Kristol and Stephen Spender.

, 2016, , *''America in the age of Trump: opportunities and oppositions in an unsettled world'', New York: Encounter Books, 2017, , *''The End of Democracy: Russia and China on the Rise, America in Retreat'',

Regan Arts Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional of ...

, 2020"About the book"
''Simonandschuster.com''. Retrieved December 4, 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schoen, Douglas 1953 births Living people 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Alumni of the University of Oxford American political commentators American political consultants American political writers Fox News people The Harvard Crimson people Harvard Law School alumni Jewish American writers New York (state) Democrats People from New York City Pollsters Writers from New York City American male non-fiction writers Harvard College alumni Horace Mann School alumni 21st-century American Jews