Kirsten A. Powers (born 1969) is an American political pundit and analyst. She began her career as a Democratic Party staff assistant with the Clinton-Gore presidential transition team in 1992, followed by an appointment as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Public Affairs in the Clinton administration from 1993-1998. She subsequently worked in various roles including press secretary, communications consultant and party consultant.^[1] She also serves as a columnist to USA Today, Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and a contributor on Fox News.^[2]

Powers wrote a column for The American Prospect^[3] and her numerous articles have appeared in USA Today, Elle, the New York Observer, Salon, and the Wall Street Journal. In 2005 journalist Ben Smith wrote that Powers was "emerging as one of the Democratic Party’s national voices."^[1]

Early life and education[edit]

Powers was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her parents were archaeologists, with Irish-American heritage.^[1][4][5][6] She credits her interest in politics and debate with being "expected to state and defend my positions on the issues of the day every night at dinner."^[4]

She graduated from the University of Maryland and attended Georgetown University Law School for a year and a half.

Career[edit]

Powers served in the Clinton administration as the deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for public affairs.

She left for the vice president for international communications job at America Online,^[2] which at the time was the most dominant Internet service provider (ISP), particularly in providing e-mail addresses and instant messaging. After AOL's merger with Time Warner, she became a vice president at the AOL-Time Warner Foundation.

Powers has worked in New York State Democratic politics for many years. She was a staff member of the New York State Democratic Committee, the press secretary for the Andrew Cuomo for Governor campaign, and communications director on the mayoral campaign of C. Virginia Fields. She also worked on the "Vote No on 3" campaign, which overwhelmingly defeated New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ballot initiative to eliminate party primaries. Powers also served briefly as press secretary for Donnie Fowler's unsuccessful bid to be Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair. She has consulted for a variety of non-profit organizations, including Human Rights First and the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW).^[2]

In 2015, she published The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech.

Political positions[edit]

Powers supported the Obama health care reform, and believes it is a moral imperative to supply health care to all Americans.^[7] But later, she was highly critical of the way it has been implemented, lamenting that her premiums have doubled, "I have talked about how I am losing my health insurance. I'm having, if I want to keep the same health insurance, it's going to cost twice as much. There's nothing substandard about my plan."^[8] Later she said, " A lot of people who have really been screwed over by the law, you know, who are left without insurance or with extremely expensive insurance", and agreed with a Ron Fournier headline in National Review, "Why I'm getting tired of defending Obamacare."^[9]

Powers supports comprehensive immigration reform and providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, favors gun control,^[10] and supports civil unions for LGBT Americans, and marriage strictly as a religious institution.^[11] She opposed the "don't ask, don't tell" military policy,^[12] and supports closing Guantanamo Bay and putting prisoners in federal prisons.^[13]

She opposed the Iraq war,^[14] the Fairness Doctrine,^[15] and a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning.^[16]

She also opposes the death penalty.^[17]

She supports the right of countries to choose their own governments free of outside influence but is against the establishment of theocracies. Powers had a particular concern over the influence of Islamists in Egypt due to her former husband being of Coptic Egyptian origin.^[18]

Powers promotes the anti-abortion movement, and in 2011 published a piece in The Daily Beast promoting the theory that access to birth control does not prevent abortions, which she later admitted contains "a serious error" that "invalidates" her piece.^[19][20] She has called for Planned Parenthood to be shut down.^[21] Powers opposes elective late-term abortions.^[22]

Personal life[edit]

Powers briefly dated former Congressman Anthony Weiner in 2002, and remained his close friend after their romantic relationship ended. After initially defending him when the story of Weiner's sexting scandal surfaced in May 2011, Powers later condemned his conduct and called for his resignation from Congress.^[23]

Powers married Dr. Marty Makary, Professor of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, in January 2010; the couple divorced in 2013.

Powers was raised as an Episcopalian but spent much of her early adult life as an atheist. In her mid-30s, she became an evangelical Christian. The process of conversion began when she dated a religious Christian man, who introduced her to the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and the teachings of its pastor, Tim Keller, and culminated in an experience in 2006 when, during a trip to Taiwan, she believes that she was visited by Jesus.^[5] She has called her conversion "a bit of a mind bender" due to her political beliefs and former atheism, and prefers the term "orthodox Christian" over "evangelical" to describe herself, given the "cultural baggage" around the word "evangelical".^{[dead link][24]} She has said that the biggest impact her new-found faith had on her political beliefs was that she came to "view everyone as God's child and that means everyone deserves grace and respect."^{[4] [10]}

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• The Daily Beast column
• USA Today column
• The American Prospect column
• New York Post column
• The Wall Street Journal column
• Salon column
• The Washington Spectator column
• The Huffington Post blog entries
• Appearances on C-SPAN