Raymond Strother

Bio of Raymond Strother

Raymond Strother was born in Port Arthur, Texas and was graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. He attended Northwestern State College in Natchitoches, Louisiana for two years before moving to LSU where he became advertising director of the Daily Reveille and later editor. While attending LSU he became the night reporter for the Associated Press and a photographer inn the Capitol Bureau.

Strother has been the media producer and consultant for Senators Lloyd Bentsen, Russell Long, John Stennis, Dennis Deconcini, Gary Hart, Al Gore, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Max Bacus, and others. Strother guided the Gary Hart media campaign for president in 1984 and 1988 and then was assigned the Super Tuesday states for Albert Gore. He worked in governors races for Bill Clinton, Arkansas; Mark White, Texas; Bill O'Neil, Connecticut; Rudy Perpich, Minnesota; Martha Layne Collins, Kentucky; Buddy Roemer, Louisiana; Roy Barnes, Georgia and Mike Lowry, Washington. Besides races for senate, governor and president, Strother has handled more than 50 campaigns for the U. S. House of Representatives and scores of campaigns for other statewide offices.

He has won awards for long form documentaries for civil rights hero, John Lewis and U. S. Treasurer Lloyd Bentsen.

Honors:

Political Consultant Hall of Fame by the American Association of Political Consultants, a bipartisan group of professionals.

Doctorate of Humane Letters by Northwestern Louisiana University.

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LSU Journalism Hall of Fame.

President and chairman of the board of the American Association of Political Consultants.

Resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.

2010 Fellow at the Dole Institute.

In 2002 was given a new national award created in his name to recognize political professionals who have an "exemplary record of achievement in the field and contributions to students and academic institutions.”

Honorary Fellow at Akron University.

The Gulf Coast Museum Hall of Notable People has an exhibit depicting his life.

In 2007 he was awarded the Wise Endowed Chair in Journalism at Northwestern State University where he taught writing.

Publications:

He has published a novel, Cottonwood, about a political consultant who loses his soul and an autobiography, Falling Up, How a Redneck Helped Invent Political Consulting. Strother is a frequent commentator on network television and was an analyst in 2000 on the Vice Presidential Debates for PBS. He has written for Newsweek, the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlanta Constitution, and scores of other publications. Campaigns and Elections magazine called him, "The poet of Democracy." His new novel, The Seduction of Mary Faye is awaiting publication.

Strother lives in Bozeman, Montana, Wise River, Montana, and Washington,

DC.

What Others Say:

"Ray Strother practically invented the political consulting profession, and he's always been the smartest of the bunch and the creator of the most riveting campaign commercials."

Fred Barnes, Fox News

Strother, it turns out, is a combination of Machiavelli, Jeff Foxworthy, and Liz Smith. He can be funny, and he can dish!"

Lesley Stahl, CBS 60 Minutes

A syndicated columnist said, " He blends persona of folksy former journalist with that of blunt, no-nonsense professional. Trademark is commercials."

"He is the innovator in American politics."

David Hartman, Good Morning America.