Katherine Marie Walsh (born November 1, 1984) is an American Republican political operative who served as

White House Deputy Chief of Staff The White House Deputy Chief of Staff is officially the top aide to the White House Chief of Staff, White House chief of staff, who is the senior aide to the president of the United States. The deputy chief of staff usually has an office in the Wh ...

for Implementation in the

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

administration. She also worked with the Trump-aligned

501(c)(4) A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the Law of the United States#Federal law, federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)). Such organizations are exempt from some Taxation in the Un ...

advocacy organization America First Policies. Walsh previously served as the Chief of Staff for the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the primary committee of the Republican Party of the United States. Its members are chosen by the state delegations at the national convention every four years. It is responsible for developing and pr ...

. She joined the Republican National Committee as Deputy Finance Director in January 2013 and became Finance Director in June of that year. In her previous role as Deputy Finance Director for the

National Republican Senatorial Committee The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) is the Republican Hill committee for the United States Senate, working to elect Republicans to the Senate. The NRSC was founded in 1916 as the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. It was reor ...

, she worked with

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

campaigns across the country to implement comprehensive fundraising and campaign strategies. Her past experience also includes serving as Midwest Regional Finance Director for the McCain–Palin campaign in 2008 and working for Friends of Fred Thompson, at the Ashcroft Group, and as a field representative for

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

ans for

Matt Blunt Matthew Roy Blunt (born November 20, 1970) is an American politician, lobbyist, and former naval officer who served as the List of governors of Missouri, 54th governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. He previously served ten years in the United St ...

Early life and education

Walsh was born an only child in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. She credits her early interest in politics to her mother, who she said worked on a county executive race in Missouri when she was seven or eight. Her early political involvement came in high school when she worked as an intern for then-Senator

John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, Lobbying, lobbyist, and former politician who served as the 79th United States attorney general under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. A Republican Party (United States), R ...

's unsuccessful 2000 reelection campaign. She attended Visitation Academy of St. Louis, a private, all-girls, Roman Catholic high school, and graduated in 2003. She was a field representative for

's 2004 campaign for

Governor of Missouri A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

. She also worked as an administrative assistant for the consulting firm Ashcroft Group. Walsh graduated from

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

with degrees in marketing and finance in 2007.

Career

2008 presidential election

Walsh was hired in 2007 as an assistant to the finance director for

Fred Thompson Freddie Dalton Thompson (August 19, 1942 – November 1, 2015) was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor, and radio personality. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as a Unite ...

's brief

presidential campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

. After Thompson dropped out of the race, she joined the

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

as Midwest regional finance director.

National Republican Senatorial Committee

Walsh then worked as deputy finance director for the

(NRSC), implementing fundraising and political strategies for Senate campaigns during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.

Republican National Committee

Walsh was hired as deputy finance director for the

in January 2013 and rose to finance director that June. At the RNC, Walsh was known as a " rainmaker", breaking records by raising over $200 million during the 2014 election cycle. Walsh was named chief of staff of the Republican National Committee in early 2015, serving under chair

Reince Priebus Reinhold Richard "Reince" Priebus ( ; born March 18, 1972) is an American politician, attorney, and naval officer who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2011 to 2017 and as White House chief of staff during the first s ...

. She was critical of the RNC's practice of sharing voter information with the Koch Brothers, saying "I think it's very dangerous and wrong to allow a group of very strong, well-financed individuals who have no accountability to anyone to have control over who gets access to the data when, why and how." Spearheaded by the RNC's technology chief Andrew Barkett for the 2014 election cycle, she ensured that a partnership began in July 2015 between the voter information in the RNC's Data Trust, operated by

Karl Rove Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August ...

and developed by Johnny DeStefano, and the voter information in the

Americans for Prosperity Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a Libertarian conservatism, libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch. As the Koch family's primary pol ...

and Freedom Partners' i360, which is supported by the Koch Brothers network, so that each database's information would be shared with GOP candidates. The RNC's Data Trust had been sharing its information with the independent groups American Crossroads and American Action Network. The extensive personal information in both i360 and Data Trust are developed from credit card use and internet choices such as credit card purchases, cable TV choices, and other sensitive personal information, much more personal than Facebook data. During the 2016 election cycle, Walsh was an architect of the Republican National Committee's

get out the vote "Get out the vote" or "getting out the vote" (GOTV) describes efforts aimed at increasing the voter turnout in elections. In countries that do not have or enforce compulsory voting, voter turnout can be low, sometimes even below a third of the e ...

and voter identification operations. She focused on using the Republican National Committee's data collection from the previous four years. She told CNN that the RNC intended to look to polls less often in favor of "

predictive modeling Predictive modelling uses statistics to predict outcomes. Most often the event one wants to predict is in the future, but predictive modelling can be applied to any type of unknown event, regardless of when it occurred. For example, predictive mod ...

," which tracks voters' likelihood of voting for Republican candidates. In November 2016, she said, "The beauty of predictive modeling is you're watching an electorate voter-by-voter over a long period of time ... You're watching their movement, you're watching what they care about, you're watching what they respond to to 'sic''and there are a lot of upsides to this." She went on to say that the Republican National Committee was also focusing on get out the vote efforts for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Walsh selected Alex Lundry's political marketing firm Deep Root Analytics to provide data analytics to the Trump campaign, along with TargetPoint Consulting and Causeway Solutions.

Donald Trump presidential transition team

Walsh was a member of

's 2016 presidential transition team. The transition team was a group of around 100 aides, policy experts, government affairs officials, and former government officials who were tasked with vetting, interviewing, and recommending individuals for top cabinet and staff roles in Trump's administration. She was part of the Leadership staff.

Trump administration

Walsh was named

for Implementation in the administration of

. Walsh oversaw senior staff and managed scheduling and the Office of Public Liaison. According to ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', Walsh had guarded access to the

Oval Office The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C. The oval room has three lar ...

on behalf of Chief of Staff

. Walsh resigned from her position on March 30, 2017, becoming an adviser to a pro-Trump

, America First Policies, and the Republican National Committee.

References

External links

*
Interview with Walsh
Women in Power (series), ''

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 ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Katie 1984 births Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign George Washington University School of Business alumni Living people Missouri Republicans People associated with the 2016 United States presidential election Politicians from St. Louis First Trump administration personnel White House deputy chiefs of staff Women government officials