Craig Shirley

Craig Shirley
Born	(1956-09-24) September 24, 1956 Syracuse, New York, USA
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Springfield College
Occupation	Reagan biographer and historian
Spouse(s)	Zorine Shirley
Children	3 sons and 1 daughter

Craig Shirley (born September 24, 1956) is an American author, lecturer, historian and public affairs consultant. He has written two bestsellers on former former U.S. president Ronald Reagan — Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America (2014) and Reagan's Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All (2005). Shirley also wrote December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World, a New York Times–bestseller published in December 2011 about the attack on Pearl Harbor and its effects on the American people and the American culture.^[1] All three books went to paperback.

Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, Shirley earned a degree in History and Political Science from Springfield College. His first two books on Reagan’s 1976 and 1980 campaigns have been hailed as the definitive works and not to be rivaled or imitated any time soon, as declared by many reviewers. Shirley was named by the London Telegraph, "the best of the Reagan biographers" ^[2] and writer Tony Lee of Breitbart said he was “one of the most esteemed Ronald Reagan biographers."^[3] Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard called him "a prominent biographer of Ronald Reagan"^[4] as well as Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard, a "noted Ronald Reagan biographer.”^[5]

Shirley has also written dozens of articles and given dozens of lectures about the life and times and lessons of Ronald Reagan.

Life and career

Youth and education

Shirley was born in Syracuse, New York, the second son of Edward Shirley and Barbara Cone Shirley. He is of English and Scottish descent. His parents were charter members of the New York State Conservative Party and his father was the first registered conservative voter in the Empire State.^[6] In high school, Shirley was a standout athlete, winning six varsity letters, winning the league pole vaulting championship and was named “Most Improved Athlete” his senior year.^[7]

In 1978 Shirley graduated from Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he majored history. He was also a member of the school’s lacrosse team and track team.

Career

Craig Shirley was professionally involved in American politics and government for over three decades. He worked in government and on campaigns at the congressional, gubernatorial, and presidential levels but now spend his time writing and lecturing on presidential politics.

In 1977, he interned in the Capitol Hill office of Senator Jacob Javits of New York. That fall, he worked on the successful election campaign of John Dalton for governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.^[8]

In the fall of 1978, Shirley was press secretary for Gordon Humphrey,^[9] who scored a huge upset win in the U.S. Senate election in New Hampshire. Shirley then served on Humphrey's Washington D.C. staff.

In 1980, he ran an important independent expenditure campaign is support of former California governor Ronald Reagan’s presidential bid in the first six primary states on behalf of the Fund for a Conservative Majority. Shirley produced and placed radio and newspaper ads in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and three other states maximizing the three quarters of a million dollars FCM budgeted for the campaign to help Reagan at a time when his own campaign was broke.^[10]

He joined the staff of the Republican National Committee in 1982 which was the political arm of the Reagan White House.^[11] As a Communications Advisor, Shirley traveled across the country advising dozens of campaigns and state committees on public relations, political advertising, and campaign strategy to co-ordinate with the message of the Reagan White House.

In 1984, during the U.S. presidential campaign, Shirley was the Director of Communications for the National Conservative Political Action Committee, America’s largest independent political committee, which spent over $14 million on behalf of President Ronald Reagan’s re-election on another independent expenditure campaign.^[12] In 1986, he became a consultant to the Fund for America’s Future, the political action committee of Vice President George H. W. Bush, working closely with the future President George W. Bush. Shirley was retained and tasked with the goal of organizing conservative support for George H. W. Bush’s 1988 presidential bid.^[13]

After Reagan’s reelection and in the late fall of 1984, Shirley opened his own firm^[14] and worked on numerous matters in co-ordination with the Reagan White House including aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, support for the Strategic Defensive Initiative, support for the Afghanistan Mujahideen, support for Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA, and support for the Tax Reform Act of 1986. He also worked on the White House Conference on Small Business in 1985.

In 1991, Shirley ran a major advertising and public affairs campaign supporting President Bush and Operation Desert Storm, later represented the Embassy of the State of Kuwait, and was placed in charge of public relations for an international conference on democracy hosted in Prague by President Václav Havel of then Czechoslovakia. For a short time, Shirley and David Keene partnered in a firm, but that association ended amicably in 1992.^[15]

During the 1990’s, Shirley conceived and created Citizens for State Power, which represented small investor owned utilities and they successfully stopped the attempts by Enron to nationalize the electricity grid.^[16] Shirley also advised the Southeastern Legal Foundation to file suit against the Clinton Administration’s attempt to politicize the census. The case went to the Supreme Court and there the SLF prevailed, defeating the Clintons in an historic 5-4 vote. Shirley pioneered the "New Media"---and indeed coined the very phrase--of talk radio, faxes, e-mail and later the internet to mobilize for politics and policy.

In addition to working with a host of political, corporate, and trade concerns, he also served as an informal advisor to the 1996 campaign of Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole. In 2000, his firm provided in-kind support to the presidential campaign of then Governor George W. Bush as well as the Florida recount. In that same year, Craig Shirley & Associates became Shirley & Banister Public Affairs with the promotion of Diana Banister from vice president to partner ^[17] and finally, president of the firm in 2015.^[18]

Shirley was also a decorated contract agent for the Central Intelligence Agency.^[19]

Writing career

Craig Shirley has completed two new books, Last Act and Wilderness ^[20] about, respectively, the post presidency of Reagan and the period between 1976 and 1980 when Reagan’s political outlook and philosophy underwent an enormous and revolutionary change.

Shirley is now working on three more books on Reagan^[21] including Last Act: The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan, a detailed look into Ronald Reagan’s final years^[22] and a book about Reagan's 1968 run. He is also writing a book about Dwight Eisenhower's personal physician Dr. Howard Snyder and a book about George Washington’s family.

Achievements and awards

Recognition

Shirley is a member of the Board of Governors of the Reagan Ranch^[23] and has lectured at the Reagan Library.^[24]

He was chosen in 2005 by Springfield College as their Outstanding Alumnus^[25] and has been named the Visiting Reagan Scholar at Eureka College, Ronald Reagan's alma mater. He taught a week long class, "Reagan 101" at Eureka College in 2012.^[26]

He was also appointed as a Trustee of Eureka.^[27]

His writings have solved some of the mysteries of Washington and politics including the stolen Carter Briefing Books in 1980,^[28] the missing cornerstone to the U.S. Capitol ^[29] and the real story about the night of the Watergate breakin,^[30] to name just a few. His book December 1941: 31 Days That Changed America and Saved the World (2011), was nominated for 2011 Book of the Year Award by Foreword Reviews magazine.^[31]

He is a member of various author’s guilds, Philadelphia Society, the Fusionist Society and the Lyn Nofziger Society. He is a former board member of the American Conservative Union.^[32] He has also lectured at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library^[33] and Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.^[34]

He has also lectured at the Buckley Center at Yale,^[35] at Larry Sabato’s Center for Politics at UVA,^[36] at Georgetown University, at Hillsdale College ^[37] and other colleges and universities.

Op-eds and media appearances

Shirley is a frequent commentator on politics. He has written for publications including the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times, Townhall, the Weekly Standard, the Washington Examiner, Newsmax, National Review, Reuters, Investors Business Daily, Politico and many other publications. He is also frequently sought after for televised interviews on all major networks, including CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, FOX Business and CNN.^[38]

Personal life

Craig Shirley and his wife, Zorine, are the parents of four children. They split their time between "Trickle Down Point" on the Rappahannock River in Lancaster, Virginia and "Ben Lomond," a 300-year-old Georgian home in Tappahannock, VA. His hobbies include sailing, writing, scuba diving, water skiing, and renovating old buildings.

Activism

Shirley is the acting chairman of the revived political action committee, Citizens for the Republic,^[39] originally established in January 1977 by Ronald Reagan after his defeat for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination the preceding summer. On its website, Citizens for the Republic describes itself as a "national organization dedicated to revitalizing the conservative movement. Through education, grassroots organization, advocacy, and political activism...promoting the principles of limited government, maximum freedom, personal responsibility, peace through strength, and defense of the dignity of every individual".^[40] The CFTR directors include former Reagan advisors and consultants Peter D. Hannaford and Ed Meese.

Lacrosse

Shirley is the founder of the Ft. Hunt Youth Lacrosse Program, and was a coach there for 14 years.^[41] In the 20 plus years since Shirley founded the program, thousands of boys and girls have enjoyed learning and playing for Ft. Hunt. Shirley was instrumental in getting the Maryland legislature to make lacrosse the state’s sport. He was also an editor of Coaching Youth Lacrosse, published by the Lacrosse Foundation.

Books

• Reagan's Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All (Thomas Nelson, 2005)^[42]
• Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2009)^[43]
• December 1941: 31 Days That Changed America and Saved the World (Thomas Nelson, 2011)^[44]
• Citizen Newt: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Speaker Gingrich (Thomas Nelson, 2014)^[45]
• Last Act: The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan (Thomas Nelson, 2015)^[46]

External links

• Biography on the Shirley & Banister Public Affairs website
• Personal website
• Archive of op-eds for Politico
• Archive of op-eds for Townhall.com
• Archive of op-eds for the Weekly Standard

References