Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland (born on or around July 24, 1951) was the deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs at The Pentagon from 1982 to 1985 under President Ronald Reagan and speech writer to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. She is a Fox News contributor on foreign policy and national security issues.
McFarland's government career began while she was a freshman at George Washington University, working part-time in the White House Situation Room typing the President's Daily Brief. She spent seven years in the West Wing of the White House, working her way up to become a key member of Henry Kissinger's National Security Council Staff. After the Ford Administration, McFarland studied at Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with concentrations on nuclear weapons, China and the Soviet Union.
McFarland ran as a Republican in the New York United States Senate election, 2006, for the seat then held by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was defeated by former Yonkers mayor John Spencer.
She is a graduate of George Washington University.
McFarland has never held elected office. She ran as a Republican for election to the United States Senate in the 2006 election, for the seat held by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who successfully ran for re-election.
On May 31, 2006, McFarland's Republican opponent, John Spencer won the endorsement of the state Republican Party organization, with 63 percent of the vote. He did not achieve the threshold of 75 percent needed to prevent McFarland from gaining an automatic position on the primary ballot, and so he and McFarland faced each other in the September 12, 2006, Republican primary, which he won by a vote of approximately 60–40%.