Mr. Steve Schmidt
Degree: 2013, Bachelor of Arts
Job Title: Campaign Strategist
Steve Schmidt (AS ’13) is one of the premier public affairs and campaign strategists in the country. Schmidt has worked on numerous high-profile political campaigns, most notably managing daily operations of John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. He serves as a Senior Fellow for the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication.
Schmidt was the Communications Director for the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2002. He served as a member of the senior strategic planning group that ran the George W. Bush re-election campaign in 2004. He served as the White House strategist for the
Supreme Court nominations of Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. He also worked on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-election campaign as campaign manager.
Schmidt and his fellow UD alumni Vice President Joe Biden (AS ?65) and David Plouffe (AS ’10), who led President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, inspired Bloomberg News to call University of Delaware the academic epicenter of national politics in 2008.
Steve Schmidt attended University of Delaware from 1988 to 1993, where he majored in political science. He left UD one math class short of graduation, but then completed the three-credit course in 2013. He went on to graduate and deliver the convocation address to his
fellow graduates.