Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist and CNN political commentator, has died. She was 58 years old.
Her death was announced by CNN. Police found Stewart’s body early Saturday morning outside in northern Virginia, the company said. Officials said they believe she was having a medical emergency, but did not say what caused her.
In an email to staff, CNN CEO Mark Thompson described her as “a political veteran and Emmy Award-winning journalist who brings unparalleled brilliance to CNN’s reporting.” did.
Stewart has appeared on cable news shows as a conservative commentator since the 2016 presidential election. Previously, she had worked on several Republican presidential campaigns.
She served as communications director for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign, and in the following two elections held similar positions against Republican candidates including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Ted Cruz. played a role.
Stewart is the deputy secretary of state for the state of Arkansas and was a 2020 fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. She was also active in Republican and conservative organizations.
At CNN, Stewart saw himself as a staunch promoter of conservatism as the Republican Party is realigned under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump.
“I don’t think everything he does is great, and I don’t think everything he does is bad,” Stewart said of Trump in a 2020 interview with the Harvard Political Review. “My position at CNN is to be an independent thinker with a conservative voice.”
In an op-ed published last year on CNN, Stewart urged Republican voters to reconsider their unconditional support for Trump in the 2024 election in light of the various criminal charges he faces. .
“This is a campaign about self-preservation, not selfless public service,” she wrote. “I don’t think that’s the way to make America great again.”
Before entering politics as press secretary in the Huckabee administration in 2005, Mr. Stewart was a news anchor and reporter for seven years at the NBC television affiliate in Little Rock, Ark.
“I loved covering politics. I loved the courts. I loved breaking news,” Stewart said in a 2020 interview with Harvard International Review. “But a few years ago I realized maybe I should do something different.”
She was born in Atlanta on March 11, 1966, and earned a degree in broadcast news and political science from the University of Georgia.
Stewart last appeared on CNN on Friday on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”
Information about her survivors was not immediately available.
