Margaret Claire Hoover (born December 11, 1977) is an American conservative political commentator, political strategist, media personality, author, and great-granddaughter of

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gre ...

, the 31st U.S. president. She is author of the book ''American Individualism: How A New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party'', published by

Crown Forum The Crown Publishing Group is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House that publishes across several fiction and non-fiction categories. Originally founded in 1933 as a remaindered books wholesaler called Outlet Book Company, the firm expanded into ...

in 2011. Hoover hosts PBS's reboot of the conservative interview show '' Firing Line''.

Early life

Hoover was born in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, the daughter of Jean (Williams), a flight attendant, and Andrew Hoover, a

mining engineer Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, a ...

. She received primary education at Graland Country Day School, an independent co-educational

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compa ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. She earned a B.A. in Spanish literature with a minor in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

in 2001. She also attended

Davidson College Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan� ...

for two years, but did not earn a degree there. Along the way, Hoover studied Spanish-language literature and

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

. She also studied abroad in Bolivia, Mexico and China. After graduating from college, Hoover moved to

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

where she got her first job as a research assistant and editor in a Taiwanese law firm; she arrived on the day of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

. Quickly realizing she wanted to be back in the U.S., she returned home in 2002.

Career

Public service

Hoover worked for the George W. Bush administration as associate director of Intergovernmental Affairs. She worked on Bush's 2004 reelection campaign and was Deputy Finance Director for Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid in 2006–07. She also worked as a staffer on Capitol Hill for Congressman

Mario Díaz-Balart Mario Rafael Díaz-Balart Caballero (; born September 25, 1961) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 25th congressional district. A Republican, he was elected in 2002, and his district includes much of s ...

, and as Advisor to the Deputy Secretary at the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...

. Hoover is on the board of overseers at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, a ...

, and on the boards of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association and the Belgian American Educational Foundation. She served on the advisory council of The

American Foundation for Equal Rights The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) was a nonprofit organization active in the United States from 2009 through 2015. The organization was established to support the plaintiffs in ''Hollingsworth v. Perry'' (formerly ''Perry v. Brown'' ...

and GOProud.

Political beliefs

Hoover is a conservative, with

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

beliefs on issues of personal morality. Hoover is an advocate for

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , ...

, including

gay marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constitutin ...

, arguing that individual freedom and marriage are conservative values. She has been profiled in '' The Advocate'' as "exactly the brand of straight ally we need right now". In 2013, Hoover was a signatory to an ''

amicus curiae An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision o ...

'' brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage in ''Hollingsworth v. Perry''. Hoover is opposed to

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 ...

. Before the 2020 election, she said, "I can't bring myself to vote for Donald Trump", adding that she would "quite likely" vote for Joe Biden instead, as she found the vote a "

binary choice In economics, discrete choice models, or qualitative choice models, describe, explain, and predict choices between two or more discrete alternatives, such as entering or not entering the labor market, or choosing between modes of transport. Such ...

Political commentator

From 2008 to 2012, Hoover was a Fox News contributor, appearing on Bill O'Reilly's ''

The O'Reilly Factor ''The O'Reilly Factor'' (originally titled ''The O'Reilly Report'' and also known as ''The Factor'') is an American cable television news and talk show. ''The O'Reilly Factor'' first aired in the United States on Fox News Channel on October 7 ...

''. In the branded segment "Culture Warrior", she jousted with 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 at CNN. In 2014, she hosted the Toyota Solutions Studio at the Women In The World conference held at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

, where she interviewed several participants. In April 2018, it was announced she would host '' Firing Line''.

''Firing Line with Margaret Hoover'' (PBS TV Series)

Hoover hosts ''Firing Line with Margaret Hoover'', a relaunch of ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

'' founder William F. Buckley Jr.'s public-affairs television show, ''Firing Line''. The original show aired on PBS for 33 years, the longest-running public affairs show in television history with a single host. Hoover's show premiered on June 2, 2018, on

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

, which serves the New York metropolitan area, and is the largest PBS market in the country. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "Under Ms. Hoover's direction, the discourse is civil and substantive". According to the ''National Review'', "the reincarnation of Firing Line comes at an interesting time, and a needful one". In the runup to the show's premiere ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

'' said, "It seems like a great idea, so let's test drive it and see what happens". In May 2019, ''

The Algemeiner The ''Algemeiner Journal'', known informally as ''The Algemeiner'', is a newspaper based in New York City that covers American and international Jewish and Israel-related news. History In 1972, Gershon Jacobson founded the Yiddish-language ...

'' named Hoover its Journalist of the Year for her work on ''Firing Line''.

Personal life

Hoover is married to fellow CNN contributor

John Avlon John Phillips Avlon (born January 19, 1973) is an American journalist and political commentator. He is a Senior Political Analyst and anchor at CNN and was the editor-in-chief and managing director of ''The Daily Beast'' from 2013 to 2018. Avlon ...

, a former

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 19 ...

speechwriter, senior columnist for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

,'' and former Editor-in-Chief of ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

''. They have a son, Jack, born in 2013, and a daughter, Toula Lou, born in 2015.

Selected works

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoover, Margaret 1977 births Living people American political consultants American bloggers American feminists American political commentators Hoover family Bryn Mawr College alumni Stanford University people LGBT rights activists from the United States George W. Bush administration personnel Colorado Republicans CNN people Fox News people Wyckoff family Activists from Colorado 21st-century American women Conservatism in the United States Libertarianism in the United States