Craig Shirley

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Craig P. Shirley is the President and CEO of a Republican-conservative public relations firm, Shirley & Bannister Public Affairs, whose current or former clients include the Heritage Foundation, National Taxpayers Union and Manhattan Institute. In addition to representing political figures and organizations it also has clients that range from the University of Phoenix to the United States Chamber of Commerce.

He is also the founder-and former member-of Keene, Shirley & Associates, a similar public relations firm created by both him and American Conservative Union head David Keene. He served as Chief Executive Officer of that firm in 1987 and continued his association with it for the ensuing five years.

In addition to his career as a consultant and lecturer, Shirley has served in a variety of capacities within government and inside of Republican political campaigns. He was the press secretary to former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey's successful campaign in the state of New Hampshire as well as a staffer in his Capitol Hill office once he was elected.

In 1980 he supervised a large independent expenditure campaign run by Fund for a Conservative Majority on behalf of then presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. The following year he became an account executive with a major New York advertising firm, and in 1982 he served as a communications advisor to the Republican National Committee.

In the 1984 presidential election year he served as the director of communications for the National Conservative Political Action Committee. The same year he founded Craig Shirley & Associates Inc., a public relations firm that he would re-open eight years later. In 2002 the firm would assume its current mantle, Shirley & Bannister Public Affairs.

Craig Shirley is the author of Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All, which explores Ronald Reagan's ultimately unsuccessful fight to win the 1976 Republican presidential nomination.