Robert M. Shrum

Robert M. Shrum, a longtime political strategist and speechwriter, is currently a senior fellow at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service where he will pursue teaching, writing, and research.

Mr. Shrum was Senior Advisor to the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004. The May, 2004, Atlantic Monthly described him as “the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party.” He has served as a Senior Adviser to the Gore 2000 Presidential Campaign, to the campaign of Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, and to the British Labour Party in the 2001 Parliamentary campaign.

Mr. Shrum was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania in 1943. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he attended Loyola High School, winning a National Merit Scholarship to Georgetown University and later graduating from Harvard Law School. At Georgetown, he was named the nation’s top college debater, and at Harvard he was the winner of the Ames Competition for the best appellate advocacy at the law school. Mr. Shrum has been a fellow of the Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University and has taught at Yale and Boston College.

Mr. Shrum was the principal speechwriter to Senator George McGovern in the 1972 Democratic campaign for President. Subsequently, he served as the Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. Mr. Shrum served as Press Secretary to Senator Edward M. Kennedy from 1980 to 1984, and he was the Senator’s principal speechwriter during and after the 1980 presidential campaign.

As a journalist, Mr. Shrum’s work appeared in New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The New Republic, among other publications. He was a columnist for the Microsoft on-line magazine Slate. He has written for both political and commercial television, including “The Emmy Awards,” “The American Film Institute Life Achievement Awards” on CBS, and the Emmy Award-winning and Peabody Award-winning “Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts” on CBS.

Since 1985, Mr. Shrum has conceived and produced advertising (T.V., radio, print) for twenty-six winning U.S. Senate campaigns; eight winning campaigns for Governor; the Mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Dade County and San Francisco, and the Democratic Leader of the United States House of Representatives.

In 1995, Mr. Shrum and his partner Tad Devine won first place in the American Association of Political Consultants “Pollie” Award, for producing the best sixty-second political commercial of 1994 (for Senator Edward Kennedy.) He won another for the best thirty-second ad of 1998 (for Senator John Edwards.) He won his first “Pollie” in 1986 for producing the best political TV ad of that election cycle (for Senator Alan Cranston). Mr. Shrum also worked with President Clinton on his State of the Union messages and as a consultant during the 1998 mid-term election.

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