Joshua Ryan Henry Earnest
''

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 ...

''. August 26, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2016. (born January 22, 1975) is an American political advisor who served as the 29th White House press secretary under

President 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 f ...

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 ...

from 2014 to 2017. He succeeded

Jay Carney James Ferguson 'Jay' Carney (born May 22, 1965) is an American public relations officer, political advisor and journalist who has served as Amazon's Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs from 2015 to 2022, and the United States Wh ...

as Obama's press secretary, in 2014, and was succeeded by

President 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 Pe ...

's first presidential press secretary, Sean Spicer. He currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

Early life and education

Earnest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Donald H. Earnest, an

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and university, universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of c ...

, and Jeanne M. Earnest, a

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how ...

. He attended

The Barstow School The Barstow School, formerly called Miss Barstow’s School, is a secular, coeducational, independent preparatory school in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It was co-founded in 1884 by Mary Louise Barstow and Ada Brann. The Barstow School enrolls 75 ...

, a private secondary school, on a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

. He played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. He graduated from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universit ...

, in 1997, with a

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathemati ...

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 ...

and

policy studies Policy studies is a subdisicipline of political science that includes the analysis of the process of policymaking (the policy process) and the contents of policy (policy analysis). Policy analysis includes substantive area research (such as health ...

. Earnest was a member of Sid Richardson College and was the campus-wide beer bike coordinator while at

Career

Immediately following college, he worked for

Lee P. Brown Lee Patrick Brown (born October 4, 1937) is an American politician, criminologist and businessman; in 1997 he was the first African-American to be elected mayor of Houston, Texas. He was re-elected twice to serve the maximum of three terms from ...

during the 1997 Houston mayoral election. Earnest served as a congressional aide to U.S. congressman Robert Marion Berry, from 2002 to 2003 after working on

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...

's first campaign for mayor of New York City. After working on Capitol Hill, Earnest worked for the Democratic National Committee, from 2003 to 2006, under both

Terry McAuliffe Terence Richard McAuliffe (born February 9, 1957) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 72nd governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he was co-chairman of President Bill Clinton's 1996 ...

and

Howard Dean Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 200 ...

. Earnest was Jim Davis' communications director during Davis' 2006 gubernatorial campaign in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. He moved to Iowa, in December 2006, to serve as national communications director for then-Iowa governor

Tom Vilsack Thomas James Vilsack (; born December 13, 1950) is an American politician serving as the 32nd United States Secretary of Agriculture in the Biden administration. He previously served in the role from 2009 to 2017 during the Obama administratio ...

's presidential campaign. He then joined

's presidential campaign in March 2007 as Obama's Iowa communications director. After Obama's Iowa caucus victory, Earnest worked as a top communications aide in several primary contests including South Carolina, Texas and Pennsylvania. During the 2008 general election, Earnest served as the campaign's deputy communication director. After Obama was elected president, Earnest moved to Washington, D.C. and served as the communications director for the presidential inaugural committee. Earnest started at the White House on Obama's first full day in office, January 21, 2009, as deputy press secretary under Robert Gibbs. Later, Earnest was promoted and served as principal deputy White House press secretary and chief of staff to

, occasionally filling in during press briefings. Earnest was the voice of

West Wing Week ''West Wing Week'' is a week web-episode released by The White House about the week's events concerning the President of the United States. The show was created in 2010 during the 2nd year of the Presidency of Barack Obama. The footage was shot ...

, an online video series produced by the White House that chronicled President Barack Obama's activities each week. On May 30, 2014, Obama announced that Josh Earnest would succeed Carney as the White House press secretary. In an annual survey conducted by the Politico Magazine in April 2015, he was voted the most helpful press official in the Obama administration and the best White House press secretary by nearly 70 journalists. He delivered his last press briefing of the Obama administration on January 17, 2017, in which he was surprised by Obama, who then lauded Earnest for his years of service under his administration. Earnest has worked as a political analyst and commentator for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's ...

and

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since March 2017. In May 2018, Earnest began serving as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

, based at their headquarters in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of Let America Vote, an organization founded by former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander that aims to end

voter suppression Voter suppression is a strategy used to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting ...

Personal life

In August 2012, Earnest married Natalie Wyeth in a Christian ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. His wife is a great-granddaughter of illustrator N. C. Wyeth, a granddaughter of engineer

Nathaniel C. Wyeth Nathaniel C. Wyeth (October 24, 1911 – July 4, 1990) was an American mechanical engineer and inventor. He is best known for creating a variant of polyethylene terephthalate that could withstand the pressure of carbonated liquids. Made of ...

, and a former veteran Treasury Department official. They have a son and a daughter.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Earnest, Josh 1975 births Living people Missouri Democrats Obama administration personnel People from Kansas City, Missouri Rice University alumni White House Press Secretaries