Mark McKinnon was a Reidy Fellow at the Shorenstein Center. For 30 years, McKinnon has worked as a communications strategist for causes, companies and candidates, including President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Congressman “Good Time” Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong and Bono. He is a weekly columnist for The Daily Beast and co-founder of the bipartisan group No Labels which is dedicated to more civil discourse in politics. McKinnon is vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton and Public Strategies, and president of Maverick Media. He has helped engineer five winning presidential primary and general elections and has been awarded more than 30 Pollie and Telly awards, honoring the nation’s best political and public affairs advertising. McKinnon’s research topic at the Shorenstein Center, “How the Press Picks Winners and Losers,” focused on ways in which the fourth estate puts its thumb on the scale of presidential politics by making subjective and arbitrary decisions about who gets covered, who gets included in debates, who gets preferential status, and ultimately who gets exposure to the voting public
How to Win an Election
February 18, 2016 — Mark McKinnon, political strategist, former fellow and former visiting faculty member, explains how candidates use the art of storytelling to help swing elections. Read more and watch the video at The New York Times website.