Margaret Hoover

Margaret Hoover
Hoover in 2011
Born
Margaret Claire Hoover

(1977-12-11) December 11, 1977 (age 47)
Colorado, U.S.
EducationDavidson College
Bryn Mawr College (BA)
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
​
(m. 2009)​
Children2
FamilyHerbert Hoover (great-grandfather)
Lou Henry Hoover (great-grandmother)

Margaret Claire Hoover (born December 11, 1977) is an American political commentator, political strategist, media personality, author, and great-granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. president. She is author of the book American Individualism: How A New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party, published by Crown Forum in 2011. Hoover hosts PBS's reboot of the conservative interview show Firing Line.

Early life

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Hoover was born in Colorado, the daughter of Jean (née Williams), a flight attendant, and Andrew Hoover, a mining engineer.[1][2] She received primary education at Graland Country Day School, an independent co-educational day school in Denver.[3] She earned a B.A. in Spanish literature with a minor in political science from Bryn Mawr College in 2001.[4][5] She also attended Davidson College for two years, but did not earn a degree there.[6] Along the way, Hoover studied Spanish-language literature and Mandarin Chinese. She also studied abroad in Bolivia, Mexico and China.[7] Hoover is the great-granddaughter of U.S. President Herbert Hoover.[8]

After graduating from college, Hoover moved to Taipei where she got her first job as a research assistant and editor in a Taiwanese law firm; she arrived on the day of the September 11 attacks. Quickly realizing she wanted to be back in the U.S., she returned home in 2002.[9][10]

Career

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Public service

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Hoover worked for the George W. Bush administration as associate director of Intergovernmental Affairs.[11] She worked on Bush's 2004 reelection campaign and was Deputy Finance Director for Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid in 2006–07.[12] She also worked as a staffer on Capitol Hill for Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, and as Advisor to the Deputy Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.[13] Hoover is on the board of overseers at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and on the boards of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association and the Belgian American Educational Foundation.[14][15][16] She served on the advisory council of The American Foundation for Equal Rights and GOProud.[17][18]

Political beliefs

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Hoover is a Republican, with libertarian beliefs on social issues.[19][20] Hoover is an advocate for gay rights, including gay marriage, arguing that individual freedom and marriage are conservative values.[21] She has been profiled in The Advocate as "exactly the brand of straight ally we need right now".[22] In 2013, Hoover was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage in Hollingsworth v. Perry.[23]

Hoover is opposed to Donald Trump.[20] Before the 2020 election, she said, "I can't bring myself to vote for Donald Trump", adding that she would "quite likely" vote for Joe Biden instead, as she found the vote a "binary choice".[19]

Political commentator

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From 2008 to 2012, Hoover was a Fox News contributor, appearing on Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor.[24] In the branded segment "Culture Warrior", she jousted with O'Reilly on a range of topics from entertainment news to popular culture to Hollywood and politics. In 2012, she became a political contributor at CNN.[25] In 2014, she hosted the Toyota Solutions Studio at the Women In The World conference held at Lincoln Center, where she interviewed several participants.[26] In April 2018, it was announced she would host Firing Line.[27]

Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (PBS TV Series)

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Hoover hosts Firing Line with Margaret Hoover, a relaunch of National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr.'s public-affairs television show, Firing Line although she shares few of Buckley's views on political philosophy or policy positions. The original show aired on PBS for 33 years, the longest-running public affairs show in television history with a single host.[28][29] Hoover's show premiered on June 2, 2018, on WNET, which serves the New York metropolitan area, and is the largest PBS market in the country.[30][31][32] The New York Times wrote, "Under Ms. Hoover's direction, the discourse is civil and substantive".[33] According to the National Review, "the reincarnation of Firing Line comes at an interesting time, and a needful one".[34] In the run-up to the show's premiere Politico said, "It seems like a great idea, so let's test drive it and see what happens".[35] In May 2019, The Algemeiner named Hoover its Journalist of the Year for her work on Firing Line.[36]

Personal life

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Hoover is married to fellow CNN contributor John Avlon, a former Rudy Giuliani speechwriter, senior columnist for Newsweek, and former Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast.[33] They have a son, born in 2013, and a daughter, born in 2015.[37][38]

Selected works

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  • Hoover, Margaret (July 2011). American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party (Hardbound ed.). New York: Crown Forum. ISBN 978-0307718150.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Weddings: Margaret Hoover, John Avlon". The New York Times. November 6, 2009. pp. ST13. Retrieved November 15, 2018. She is the daughter of Jean W. Hoover and Andrew Hoover of Littleton, Colo. Her father, a mining engineer, retired from Greenfield Engineering in Denver. He is also on the board of the Hoover library association. Her mother retired as a flight attendant for United Airlines.
  2. ^ Allen, Anne Beiser (January 1, 2000). An Independent Woman: The Life of Lou Henry Hoover. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313314667. Retrieved April 20, 2017 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "Grade 7: Celebrity Alumna Returns to Campus". graland.org. Graland Country Day School. November 9, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018. When alumna Margaret Hoover '93 was in town last week to receive the Nancy Nye Priest Award from the Alumni Association, she graciously made time to visit campus and speak with seventh graders about her career as a political commentator.
  4. ^ Ginanni, Claudia (September 15, 2011). "In American Individualism, Margaret Hoover '01 Advises Republican Party on Attracting Young Voters". alumnews.blogs.brynmawr.edu. Bryn Mawr College. Retrieved November 15, 2011. As the Republican presidential candidates approach the primary season, considerable media attention has been devoted to Margaret Hoover '01, whose American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party was published this summer.
  5. ^ "Margaret Hoover–Cherished Legacy". womanaroundtown.com. Woman Around Town. July 26, 2009. Retrieved November 15, 2018. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a B.A. in Spanish literature and a minor in political science.
  6. ^ "Famous Davidson College Alumni". ranker.com. Ranker. November 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018. List of famous alumni from Davidson College, with photos when available. Prominent graduates from Davidson College include celebrities, politicians, business people, athletes and more. This list of distinguished Davidson College alumni is loosely ordered by relevance, so the most recognizable celebrities who attended Davidson College are at the top of the list. This directory is not just composed of graduates of this school, as some of the famous people on this list didn't necessarily earn a degree from Davidson College
  7. ^ Hoover, Margaret (July 26, 2011). Margaret Hoover: A New Generation of Conservatives and the Future of the Republican Party. Interviewed by Joe Tuman. Transcript. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  8. ^ Hoover, Bob (July 24, 2011). "Fox News contributor Margaret Hoover defends her great-grandfather: President Hoover". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  9. ^ "Margaret Hoover: A New Generation of Conservatives and the Future of the Republican Party".
  10. ^ Green, Penelope (July 11, 2018). "Margaret Hoover and John Avlon on their Post-Partisan Marriage". The New York Times.
  11. ^ "How Abortion, Legitimate Rape, and Mom-in-Chief Will Affect the Election". The New Yorker. September 19, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  12. ^ Smith, Chris (March 30, 2007). "Giuliani Loses a Second Bushie". nymag.com. New York Magazine. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  13. ^ Norfleet, Gregory (December 23, 2008). "Great-granddaughter of Hoover engaged to Giuliani speechwriter". westbranchtimes.com. West Branch Times. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  14. ^ "Hoover Institution Board of Overseers". hoover.org. Hover Institution. Retrieved November 16, 2018. Overseers: Margaret Hoover, New York, NY
  15. ^ "Weddings: Margaret Hoover, John Avlon". The New York Times. November 6, 2009. pp. ST13. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  16. ^ "Members of the Board of Directors 2016: Officers". baef.be. Belgian American Educational Foundation. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  17. ^ American Foundation for Equal Rights. "Advisory Council Board". American Foundation for Equal Rights.
  18. ^ Avlon, John (February 10, 2011). "Gay group in conservatives' gathering splits GOP". cnn.com. CNN. Retrieved November 16, 2018. Avlon's wife, Margaret Hoover, serves on the board of GOProud
  19. ^ a b "Conservative commentator Margaret Hoover says she will 'quite likely' vote for Biden". September 2, 2020.
  20. ^ a b Green, Penelope (July 11, 2018). "Margaret Hoover and John Avlon on their Post-Partisan Marriage". The New York Times.
  21. ^ Hoover, Margaret (June 15, 2011). "The conservative case for gay marriage: GOP is not the party of intolerance". nydailynews.com. New York Daily News. Archived from the original on November 25, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  22. ^ "A New Conservative Agenda". advocate.com. Advocate. July 5, 2011. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  23. ^ Avlon, John (February 28, 2013). "The Pro-Freedom Republicans Are Coming: 131 Sign Gay Marriage Brief". tehdailybeast.com. The Daily Beast. Retrieved November 25, 2018. Influential party donors such as Cliff Asness, Lew Eisenberg, and Dan Loeb decided to add their names, as did policy leaders such as Doug Holtz-Eakin, Greg Mankiw, and Nancy Pfotenhauer, and strategists and media figures such as Alex Castellanos, Margaret Hoover (full disclosure, my bride), Nicolle Wallace, Steve Schmidt, S.E. Cupp, Ana Navarro, and The Daily Beast's own David Frum and Mark McKinnon. Demographic of one Clint Eastwood even decided to sign on.
  24. ^ Hoover, Margaret (March 12, 2015). "CPAC 2012 moves away from gay conservatives and closer to the politics of hate". Fox News. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  25. ^ Werpin, Alex (May 9, 2012). "Margaret Hoover Joins CNN as Political Contributor". adweek.com. Adweek Network TV Newser. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  26. ^ Bennett, Jessica (May 16, 2014). "Feminism, One Conference at a Time". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  27. ^ Pedersen, Erik (April 26, 2018). "'Firing Line': PBS Reloads Public-Affairs Show With Host Margaret Hoover". Deadline Hollywood. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  28. ^ "Register of the Firing Line (Television Program) broadcast records". oac.cdlib.org. Online Archives of California. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  29. ^ Simon, Scott (June 8, 2018). "William F. Buckley's Firing Line Returns with Margaret Hoover". NPR. National Public Radio. Retrieved November 15, 2018. Almost 20 years since Firing Line ceased production, Margaret Hoover is stepping in to become the next host of the conservative talk show on PBS.
  30. ^ "Firing Line with Margaret Hoover". tvguide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  31. ^ "WNET Sponsorship". wnet.org. WNET. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  32. ^ "WGBH Boston and Thirteen/WNET New York, Two of America's Largest Public Broadcasters, Join Forces to Launch World and Create - Two New Digital Channels Serving Viewers Across the Northeast". businesswire.com. Business Wire. February 24, 2004. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  33. ^ a b Green, Penelope (July 11, 2018). "Margaret Hoover and John Avlon on their Post-Partisan Marriage". The New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  34. ^ Williamson, Kevin (June 3, 2018). "A Hoover Restoration". nationalreview.com. National Review. Retrieved November 25, 2018. The reincarnation of Firing Line comes at an interesting time, and a needful one.
  35. ^ Hendershot, Heather (June 1, 2018). "Is America Ready for Kinder, Gentler Political TV?". politico.com. Politico. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  36. ^ Staff, Algemeiner (May 16, 2019). "Journalists Margaret Hoover, Jackson Diehl Honored at Algemeiner Summer Benefit". algemeiner.com. The Algemeiner. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  37. ^ Norfleet, Gregory (August 23, 2013). "Jack joins Hoover lineage". westbranchtimes.com. West Branch Times. Retrieved November 25, 2018. John Avlon and Margaret Hoover welcomed a baby boy, Jack, at 7:23 p.m. Aug. 14, 2013
  38. ^ "Hoovers welcome Toula Lou". westbranchtimes.com. West Branch Times. December 10, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2018. John Avlon and Margaret Hoover announced the birth of daughter Toula Lou Hoover Avlon.
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