CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Margaret Hoover
CNN Political Contributor, Political Strategist, LGBT Activist & Author - "American Individualism: How A New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party"
Margaret Hoover is a media personality, a gay rights activist, a new mother, a political strategist and the best selling author of "American Individualism: How A New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party" (Crown Forum).
The great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover, her political work is committed to renewing the Republican Party to enable it to connect with a new generation of Americans. Cynthia Nixon recently said that Ms. Hoover "appeals to the pragmatism of the millennial generation, she believes constitutionally guaranteed rights ought to transcend left versus right, and Democrat versus Republican, and she does so with savvy, skill and style."
Ms. Hoover is a veteran of the Bush Administration White House, two presidential campaigns, and a former staffer on Capitol Hill. Currently a CNN political contributor, she serves as the Presidents of American Unity PAC, which elects pro-LGBT Republicans to Congress and American Unity Fund which supports the work of pro-freedom Republicans nationally. She helped found "Young Conservatives for Freedom to Marry" and serves on the boards of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Foundation, and the Belgian American Educational Foundation.
Previously Ms. Hoover was a Fox News contributor where she starred on Bill O'Reilly's top rated show "The Factor". In the branded segment "Culture Warrior", her jousting with Bill O'Reilly on a range of topics from entertainment news, to popular culture, to Hollywood and politics, was The Factor's highest rated segment. She is a regular guest of Bill Maher's "Real Time" on HBO, and has appeared repeatedly on NBC's Today Show, CBS' Early Show, ABC's Good Morning America, at MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN, C-SPAN Book TV, and a PBS documentary about her great-grandfather (Landslide, 2010). Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, CNN.com and FoxNews.com.
Raised in Colorado, Hoover has lived in China, Mexico, Bolivia and Taiwan, speaks Spanish fluently and is a continuing student of Mandarin Chinese. Ms. Hoover currently resides in New York City with her husband John Avlon, who is Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast, and with their nine month old son, Jack.
