Karl Rove

Karl Christian Rove is an American Republican political consultant, strategist, and policy adviser born on December 25, 1950, in Denver, Colorado. The family moved repeatedly during his youth, settling in Sparks, Nevada, and later Salt Lake City, Utah, where he attended high school. He enrolled at the University of Utah and at several other institutions but never completed a bachelor's degree.

He entered Republican politics as a teenager, serving as executive director of the College Republican National Committee in 1971 and winning election as its chairman in 1973 in a campaign managed by future political ally Lee Atwater. As a young operative he worked for the Republican National Committee under chairman George H. W. Bush, beginning a relationship with the Bush family that would shape his career.

From 1981 he ran a direct-mail consulting firm in Austin, Texas, and helped engineer the Republican capture of statewide offices long held by Democrats, including George W. Bush's 1994 election as governor. He served as chief strategist for Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, then as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff in the White House from 2001 to 2007, where he directed the Office of Political Affairs and the Office of Strategic Initiatives.

After leaving the administration he became a Fox News contributor, a Wall Street Journal columnist, and a co-founder of the political-action committee American Crossroads and the affiliated nonprofit Crossroads GPS. His 2010 memoir Courage and Consequence recounted his three decades in conservative politics, and his 2015 book The Triumph of William McKinley revisited the 1896 presidential campaign.

Karl is a masculine Germanic name from the Old High German karl meaning free man, cognate with the English Charles. He has carried the masculine name throughout his life.