Donna Brazile | Founder and Managing Director of Brazile & Associates LLC

Donna Brazile

Founder and Managing Director of Brazile & Associates LLC

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Donna Brazile
Biography

Donna Brazile is a veteran political strategist, New York Times bestselling author, Senior Advisor at Purple Strategies, Chair of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and sought-after Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning media contributor to such outlets as ABC News, USA Today, The Hill and theGrio.

She became the first African American woman to serve as the manager of a major party presidential campaign, running the campaign of former Vice President Al Gore.  She previously served as interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee and of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. She is a current member of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee.

She is author of the 2004 best-selling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics and the 2017 New York Times Bestseller Hacks: The Inside Story of the  Break-Ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump In The White House. She is a co-author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics, which won the 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction. Ms. Brazile is a contributor to the recently published 400 Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019.

She serves as an adjunct professor in the Women and Gender Studies Department at Georgetown University and served as the King Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University and as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. She has lectured at nearly 250 colleges and universities on diversity, equity and inclusion; women in leadership; and restoring civility in American politics.

She is the proud recipient of more than ten honorary doctorate degrees from major colleges and universities, including her alma mater Louisiana State University. In October 2017, Ms. Brazile was the recipient of the W.E.B Du Bois Medal, Harvard’s highest honor in African American studies. Ms. Brazile was the recipient of a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Program, Good Morning America (2016-2017) in connection with her work with ABC and she was a member of the Peabody Award-winning “Best Political Team on Television” on CNN during the 2008 election cycle.

She moonlights as an actress and is especially honored to have made three cameo appearances on CBS’s The Good Wife, and two cameo appearances on Netflix’s series House of Cards. She also appeared as herself on BET's Being Mary Jane. Most recently she played herself in the Zack Snyder film Army of the Dead. Ask her and she’ll tell you that acting, after all, is the key to success in politics.

Donna Brazile
Featured Video

Current: Commencement Address

Time 32:27

Political Outlook
A Comprehensive Picture of What's Going on in Washington

Always candid and insightful, Donna Brazile brings a refreshing perspective and practical sensibility to issues being discussed on Capital Hill. Her presentations provide a comprehensive picture of what’s going on in Washington—from analysis of how the current political environment will impact the 2020 elections to hot-topic legislation. Named by Washingtonian as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women,” Brazile draws on her insider knowledge to provide audiences with the latest developments across the political landscape, the critical issues facing America, and what their impact means for our future.

Passion for Politics

Donna Brazile weaves together a captivating political narrative drawing on anecdotal stories from her decades work in Washington. Recalling moments working on every presidential campaign since 1984, heading the Gore-Lieberman campaign, serving as chief of staff and press secretary to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), serving as interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, and working as top Democratic political strategist, Brazile offers a comprehensive picture of the political environment, and gives an original perspective on the trends shaping and driving the mood of the country.  

Diversity and Inclusion
Expanding the Circle of Opportunity and Why it Matters

Donna Brazile was the first African American woman to manage a presidential campaign and is known for her work promoting diversity. An expert on political and socio-economic issues, she sits on the board of the Professional Diversity Network and looks at why expanding the circle of opportunity for minorities helps everyone succeed and how diversity is the key to success both in the board room and in Washington, DC.

Donna Brazile
Featured Books

Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White Houseby Donna Brazile

Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House

by Donna Brazile

"Explosive... A blistering tell-all."---Washington Post

"People should sit up, take notes and change things."---Ace Smith, Los Angeles Times

"Brazile most certainly has a story to tell.... Vivid."---The Guardian

From Donna Brazile, former DNC chair and legendary political operative, an explosive and revealing new look at the 2016 election: the first insider account of the Russian hacking of the DNC and the missteps by the Clinton campaign and Obama administration that enabled a Trump victory.

In the fallout of the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee--and as chaos threatened to consume the party's convention--Democrats turned to a familiar figure to right the ship: Donna Brazile. Known to millions from her frequent TV appearances, she was no stranger to high stakes and dirty opponents, and the longtime Democratic strategist had a reputation in Washington as a one-stop shop for fixing sticky problems.

What Brazile found at the DNC was unlike anything she had experienced before--and much worse than is commonly known. The party was beset by infighting, scandal, and hubris, while reeling from a brazen and wholly unprecedented attempt by a foreign power to influence the presidential election. Plus, its candidate, Hillary Clinton, faced an opponent who broke every rule in the political playbook.

Packed with never-before-reported revelations about what went down in 2016, Hacks is equal parts campaign thriller, memoir, and roadmap for the future. With Democrats now in the wilderness after this historic defeat, Hacks argues that staying silent about what went wrong helps no one. Only by laying bare the missteps, miscalculations, and crimes of 2016, Brazile contends, will Americans be able to salvage their democracy.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politicsby Donna Brazile

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics

by Donna Brazile

“For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics. It’s a wonderful, necessary book.”
– Hillary Clinton

The four most powerful African American women in politics share the story of their friendship and how it has changed politics in America.

The lives of black women in American politics are remarkably absent from the shelves of bookstores and libraries. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics is a sweeping view of American history from the vantage points of four women who have lived and worked behind the scenes in politics for over thirty years―Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore―a group of women who call themselves The Colored Girls. Like many people who have spent their careers in public service, they view their lives in four-year waves where presidential campaigns and elections have been common threads. For most of the Colored Girls, their story starts with Jesse Jackson’s first campaign for president. From there, they went on to work on the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Over the years, they’ve filled many roles: in the corporate world, on campaigns, in unions, in churches, in their own businesses and in the White House. Through all of this, they’ve worked with those who have shaped our country’s history―US Presidents such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, well-known political figures such as Terry McAuliffe and Howard Dean, and legendary activists and historical figures such as Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, and Betty Shabazz.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics is filled with personal stories that bring to life heroic figures we all know and introduce us to some of those who’ve worked behind the scenes but are still hidden. Whatever their perch, the Colored Girls are always focused on the larger goal of “hurrying history” so that every American ― regardless of race, gender or religious background ― can have a seat at the table. This is their story.

Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in Americaby Donna Brazile

Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in America

by Donna Brazile

Cooking with Grease is an inspiring, behind-the-scenes memoir of the life and times of a tenacious political organizer and the first African-American woman to head a major presidential campaign.
Donna Brazile fought her first political fight at age nine -- campaigning (successfully) for a city council candidate who promised a playground in her neighborhood. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, she committed her heart and her future to political and social activism. By the 2000 presidential election, Brazile had become a major player in American political history -- and she remains one of the most outspoken and forceful political activists of our day.
Brazile grew up one of nine children in a working-poor family in New Orleans, a place where talking politics comes as naturally as stirring a pot of seafood gumbo -- and where the two often go hand in hand. Growing up, she learned how to cook from watching her mother, Jean, stir the pots in their family kitchen. She inherited her love of reading and politics from her grandmother Frances. Her brothers Teddy Man and Chet worked as foot soldiers in her early business schemes and in her voter registration efforts as a child.
Cooking with Grease follows Donna's rise to greater and greater political and personal accomplishments. But each new career success came with its own kind of heartache, especially in her greatest challenge: leading Al Gore's 2000 campaign, making her the first African American to lead a major presidential campaign.
Cooking with Grease is an intimate account of Donna's thirty years in politics. Her witty style and innovative political strategies have garnered her the respect and admiration of colleagues and adversaries alike -- she is as comfortable trading quips with Karl Rove as she is with her Democratic colleagues. Her story is as warm and nourishing as a bowl of Brazile family gumbo.

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