Christopher W. Stirewalt is an American political analyst who is the politics editor for

NewsNation NewsNation is an American cable news network owned by Nexstar Media Group. Known for most of its history as Superstation WGN before becoming WGN America in 2008, it relaunched on March 1, 2021, as a cable news network named after its flagship n ...

and is a contributing editor for ''

The Dispatch ''The Dispatch'' is an American center-right subscription-based online magazine founded by Jonah Goldberg, Stephen F. Hayes, and Toby Stock. Several of ''The Dispatchs staff (including Hayes) are alumni of '' The Weekly Standard'', whi ...

''. Previously he had worked for the

Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...

, which he joined in July 2010. He authored and hosted ''Fox News Halftime Report'' newsletter and co-hosted the podcast ''Perino & Stirewalt: I'll Tell You What'' with Dana Perino.

Life and career

Chris Stirewalt, a

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ohio and Marshall County, West Virginia, Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The county seat of Ohio County, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mo ...

, native, was a 1993 graduate of the Linsly School. He began his

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

career at age 17 writing

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

box scores for '' The Wheeling Intelligencer''. A 1997 graduate of

Hampden-Sydney College Hampden Sydney is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. Hampden Sydney is the home of Hampden–Sydney College, a private all-male college that is the tenth ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, he later served as politics editor at the ''

Charleston Daily Mail The ''Charleston Daily Mail'' was a newspaper based in Charleston, West Virginia. On July 20, 2015, it merged with the '' Charleston Gazette'' to form the '' Charleston Gazette-Mail''. Publishing history The ''Daily Mail'' was founded in 1914 ...

'' and West Virginia Media. He co-hosted the podcast "Perino & Stirewalt: I'll Tell You What" from 2016 to 2020. Stirewalt frequently appeared on Fox News programs. His role involved serving as the network's "main on-air analyst of polls and voting trends." Stirewalt hosted the weekly ''Power Play'' show on Fox. Fox News fired Stirewalt in January 2021. In February 2021, Stirewalt joined ''

'' as a contributing editor. On May 24, 2022, Stirewalt joined

as its political editor. On January 18, 2024,

announced that Stirewalt would host a new Sunday public affairs program ''The Hill Sunday'' which debuted on March 3, 2024.

2020 presidential election

Arnon Mishkin, Fox News decision desk chief for the 2020 presidential election, called the state of

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and its 11 electoral votes to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at 11:20 p.m. Eastern time on election night, November 3, 2020. The Associated Press, who collaborated with Fox on a voter analysis survey that was used to determine the election results, seconded the call of Arizona for Biden. Bill Hemmer, standing at the Fox News election map, was caught by surprise when Arizona "flipped to blue". "What is happening here? Why is Arizona blue?" he asked. "Did we just call it? Did we just make a call in Arizona?" "OK, time out. This is a big development," commented co-anchor Bret Baier, adding "Biden picking up Arizona changes the . . math." Stirewalt quickly came onscreen to defend the network's decision. "How can you call Arizona, but we can't call Ohio?" Baier asked him. "Because the races are very different," he replied, explaining that vote margins were too great in Arizona for the Republican candidate to overcome. As for Ohio, Stirewalt said, "There is just too much vote out, and there's too much potentially heavily Democratic mail vote that may flop in at the end to get too froggy right now with Ohio." He assured viewers that "We're going to be careful, cautious, and earnest." "Arizona is doing just what we expected it to do and we remain serene and pristine," Stirewalt later said. He dismissed voter fraud claims from Republicans, saying, "Lawsuits, schmawsuits — we haven't seen any evidence yet that there's anything wrong." Expressing pride in "being first to project that Joe Biden would win Arizona, and very happy to defend that call in the face of a public backlash egged on by former President Trump," in a ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' op-ed, Stirewalt stated that: "Being right and beating the competition is no act of heroism; it's just meeting the job description of the work I love." He emphasized in a '' Vanity Fair'' interview that he was "not responsible" personally for the call; instead he credited "an awesome team of fabulous nerds" at the Fox's Decision Desk HQ and Fox News editor at the time, Bill Sammon. Stirewalt saw nothing "out of the ordinary" when his team made the Arizona announcement on election night. In hindsight, he realized the impact as "effective in defeating Trump's attempt to disrupt the election––to steal an election, because yes, the narrative was broken." "We were kind of out there by ourselves, and through that process, we became a focus of all of this rage, all of this anger," Stirewalt adds of the impact of the early call. "Chris Stirewalt's leaving had nothing to do with the correct Arizona call by the Fox decision desk,"

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

stated in an email to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', rather Murdoch was concerned about "Stirewalt's on-air manner, which he perceived as overly casual for a discussion of the election results." Though respected in the Fox newsroom, analysis of "ratings on a minute-by-minute basis" indicated viewership flattening or falling during Stirewalt's frequent appearances.

Books

Stirewalt's first book, ''Every Man a King: A Short, Colorful History of American Populists'', was published in September 2018 by Twelve. In it he writes about

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running three times as the party' ...

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

Huey Long Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "The Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination i ...

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

Pat Buchanan Patrick Joseph Buchanan ( ; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative author, political commentator, and politician. He was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. He ...

, and H. Ross Perot. He is the author of the book, ''Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back'', published by Hachette imprint Center Street in August 2022.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stirewalt, Chris 21st-century American journalists American television journalists American broadcast news analysts American political commentators American political journalists American political podcasters Fox News people Hampden–Sydney College alumni Journalists from West Virginia Television personalities from West Virginia People from Wheeling, West Virginia 1975 births Living people