The post-election GOP: Where will conservatism go next?

Mary Kate Cary, a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, served as a White House speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to early 1992, authoring more than 100 of his presidential addresses. She also has ghostwritten several books related to President Bush’s life and career and served as senior writer for communications for the 1988 Bush-Quayle presidential campaign.

Today, Cary is asked to write speeches, presentations, and reports for a variety of national political, corporate, and nonprofit leaders. Her assignments have included State of the Union responses, Republican National Convention addresses, and TED talks. She served as founding managing editor of the daily political news service The Hotline, as a staffer at ABC News’ This Week with David Brinkley, and as a columnist at U.S. News & World Report.

Ron Christie is a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow and founder and CEO of Christie Strategies LLC, a full-service communications and issues management firm in Washington, D.C. Christie is also the author of three books: Blackwards: How Black Leadership is Returning America to the Days of Separate But Equal, Acting White: The Birth and Death of a Racial Slur, and Black in the White House. Christie served as a resident fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics at Harvard University and as an inaugural resident fellow at the University of Southern California Center for the Political Future.

Michael S. Steele is a member of Bipartisan Policy Center’s Board of Directors. Steele made history when he became the first African-American to be elected to statewide office in Maryland, where he served as lieutenant governor from 2003 to 2007, and when he was chosen to be the first African-American chairperson of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2009 to 2011. Under his leadership the RNC broke fundraising records, with more than $198 million raised during the 2010 congressional cycle; and Republicans won 63 House seats, the biggest pickup since 1938. Steele’s commitment to grassroots organizing and party-building at the state and local levels produced 12 governorships and the greatest share of state legislative seats since 1928, reflecting a pickup of more than 600 seats.