Mari Maseng Will (born March 15, 1954) is a Republican adviser who has worked for

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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Robert Dole Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his ...

and Governor

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 in the first administration of Donald Trump. He previously served as the 47th governor of Texas fr ...

. She was also an adviser to Scott Walker's

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 ...

and Ted Cruz’s and

Tim Scott Timothy Eugene Scott (born September 19, 1965) is an American businessman and politician serving since 2013 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from South Carolina. A member of the Re ...

’s presidential campaigns.

Career

Maseng served President Reagan in the White House three times. She was assistant to the president and director of communications from June 1988 to January 1989. Before that she served as deputy assistant to the president and director of the Office of Public Liaison from May 1986 to July 1987 and she was a speechwriter for President Reagan from January 1981 to November 1983. She was assistant secretary of Transportation for Public Affairs from November 1983 to April 1985. Maseng was Robert Dole's press secretary during his 1980 quest for the Republican presidential nomination. She held the same job for Dole in 1987-88, until Bush clinched the nomination. For the third time Maseng was communications director of Dole's 1996 campaign. Maseng was brought in as a debate coach for the

2012 presidential campaign during the staff upheaval in the fall of 2011 and continued in that capacity for the rest of the campaign. She earlier worked for

Michele Bachmann Michele Marie Bachmann (; née Amble; born April 6, 1956) is an American politician who was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 2007 until 2015. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican P ...

prior to her announcement for president. Maseng is the principal of Maseng Communications and provides services to corporations, trade associations and political clients in the areas of public relations strategy, message development, speechwriting, and presentation training. She is a debate coach for presidential, US Senate, US House and gubernatorial candidates. Political clients have included Utah Senator

Mike Lee Michael Shumway Lee (born June 4, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Utah, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, Lee became Utah's senior senator in 2019, whe ...

, former Nebraska Senator

Ben Sasse Benjamin Eric Sasse ( ; born February 22, 1972) is an American politician and higher education administrator. He represented Nebraska in the United States Senate from 2015 to 2023, resigning to become the 13th president of the University of Flo ...

, Texas Senator

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 ...

, South Carolina Senator Tom Scott, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, former Illinois Governor

Bruce Rauner Bruce Vincent Rauner (; born February 18, 1956) is an American businessman, venture capitalist, and politician who served as the 42nd governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he had a decades-long career in inves ...

, former Nevada Attorney General

Adam Laxalt Adam Paul Laxalt ( ; born August 31, 1978) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 33rd Nevada Attorney General from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's unsuccessful nominee for governor of Nevad ...

, Former Georgia Representative and House Speaker

Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1 ...

, among many others.

Activism

Maseng is a director of the

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

Citizens for the Republic Citizens for the Republic (CFTR) is an American political action committee founded in 1977 by Ronald Reagan, five months after he narrowly lost his bid for the 1976 Republican Party (United States), Republican Party (GOP) U.S. presidential electi ...

, founded in January 1977 by

and revived in 2009 by, now chairman, Craig Shirley after a period of dormancy following President Reagan's departure from office.

Personal life

Maseng graduated from the

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

(B.A., 1975) In 1991, she married columnist and TV commentator

George Will George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator. He writes columns for ''The Washington Post'' on a regular basis and provides commentary for '' NewsNation''. In 1986, ''The Wall ...

. They have one child, David, born in 1992, and live in the Washington D.C. area.

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maseng Will, Mari 1954 births American women in politics Living people Politicians from Chicago Reagan administration personnel University of South Carolina alumni Washington, D.C., Republicans White House communications directors