Political Strategists Donna Brazile, Ana Navarro to Speak at UW Virtual Event Feb. 11

Donna Brazile, the former Democratic National Committee interim chair, bestselling author and a Fox News contributor, and Ana Navarro, former Republican strategist, co-host of ABC’s “The View” and a CNN political contributor, will discuss today’s political landscape and the future of the country Thursday, Feb. 11, through a virtual University of Wyoming presentation.

“An Afternoon of Conversation with Donna Brazile and Ana Navarro” will take place at 5:30 p.m. The discussion was set to occur last March as part of the women’s suffrage 150th anniversary celebration but, due to COVID-19 concerns, it was rescheduled. The event will be part of UW’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Days of Dialogue (MLK DOD) Feb. 8-12. The link to view the presentation will soon become available on the School of Culture, Gender and Social Justice (SCGSJ) website.

Brazile and Navarro’s talk is sponsored by UW’s SCGSJ; the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office; the Milward L. Simpson Fund and the School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies; the departments of Communication and Journalism, English, and Criminal Justice and Sociology; as well as the College of Law.

With years of political expertise and media experience, Brazile and Navarro are seasoned analysts and are among the best political commentators on television today. They can quickly scrutinize geopolitical trends and other major forces at play in the nation. When Brazile and Navarro team up, they deliver straightforward perspectives about the future of Washington, D.C., while peppering their talks with real-life stories from campaigns and television sets.

Brazile is a renowned political strategist and commentator who was an ABC News and CNN political news contributor. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House” and the 2004 bestselling memoir, “Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in America.”

Brazile was the first African American woman to direct a major presidential campaign, acting as campaign manager for Al Gore in 2000. She also has worked on several presidential campaigns for Democratic candidates, including Jesse Jackson and Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro campaigns in 1984, and for Dick Gephardt in the 1988 Democratic primary.

Navarro is a well-known Republican strategist who also has appeared on CNN en Español and Telemundo. The Miami New Times named her a “Republican power-consultant,” and the Tampa Bay Times called her “a sought-after voice in Republican politics and an adviser for any presidential hopeful.”

Navarro served as the national Hispanic co-chair for former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 campaign and was the national co-chair of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain’s Hispanic Advisory Council in 2008, where she also was the national surrogate for the McCain 2008 campaign.

Navarro has played a role in several federal and state races in Florida. She served on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s transition team in 1998 and was his first director of immigration policy in Florida’s Executive Office of the Governor.

In 2001, she served as ambassador to the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission, devoting much of her energy to condemning human rights abuses in Cuba. In 1999, she worked in the private sector, representing private and public clients on federal issues, particularly related to immigration, trade and policy affecting Central America. In 1997, she was a special adviser to the government of Nicaragua.

For more information about the virtual talk, call Jacquelyn Bridgeman, the director of UW’s SCGSJ and the Kepler Professor of Law, at (307) 766-5259 or email jbridge@uwyo.edu.