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Person

Michael Steele

Nationality:

American
Born:

1958
Occupation:

Political Commentator

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Michael Steele is a Republican politician and pundit who formerly served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland and as chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Steele is considered an economic conservative and gained popularity as an African American conservative. However, his tenure as chairman of the RNC was short and controversial, ending after only two years. Even after losing a U.S. Senate race in 2006, observers have called on Steele to run for office, but he has remained in a pundit role for the last decade, taking positions increasingly at odds with the Republican Party.

Steele is a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises. 1

Early Life and Education

Michael Steele was born in 1958 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. 2 He was adopted shortly afterward and grew up in Washington, D.C. Steele’s father died in 1962 due to alcoholism. The family of Steele’s mother urged her to collect welfare, but instead she began working as a laundress earning minimum wage to support her family. According to Steele, his mother later said, “I didn’t want the government raising my children.” 3 4

Steele initially considered becoming a priest or a doctor and decided to attend Johns Hopkins University to pursue the latter career path. He nearly failed out, but eventually earned a degree in international relations. He spent a few years at the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University, but decided on a career in civil service instead, and attended Georgetown University Law Center for his law degree. 5 6

Steele’s parents were Democrats, and Steele considered himself to be a Democrat throughout college, and he was especially supportive of President Jimmy Carter. In 1976, Steele began to follow Ronald Reagan as he left his post as governor of California. According to a profile, “Steele found himself doubting the received wisdom of the Great Society. He’d seen his share of young people deciding to take welfare instead of a job. He’d seen his share of urban renewal projects turn sour. He began to look further back, into the stories of African American communities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, places that often managed against impossible odds—not just with no government support, but often in the face of government-imposed obstacles—to build vibrant businesses and run decent schools.” 7

While at law school in the late 1980s, Steele began volunteering with the local Republican Party in Prince George’s County, Maryland. 8

Early Career

After graduating from law school in 1991, Steele became an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in Washington D.C. In 1997, Steele worked as an in-house counsel at the Mills Corp, a real estate development firm in Virginia. Soon after, he started his own law firm, the Steele Group, which has remained in operation ever since. 9 10

Political Career

Throughout Michael Steele’s early career, he rose through local Republican Party ranks. In 1994, he was elected to a seat on the Prince George’s Republican Central Committee. Soon after, he became county Republican chairman. In 1995, Steele was named Republican of the Year by the Maryland Republican Party. In 1998, he ran for state comptroller but lost in the primary. In 2000, he became statewide Republican party chair, the only Black American in the position nationally. 11 12

In 2002, Steele was selected as the running mate to then-U.S. Rep. Bob Ehrlich (R-MD) in his gubernatorial campaign. Ehrlich was elected as the first Republican governor of Maryland in almost forty years, and Steele served as lieutenant governor until 2007. Steele cites one of his primary achievements as “reforming the state’s Minority Business Enterprise program.” 13

In 2005, Steele announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate after receiving pressure from party insiders to run, including phone calls from White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, Vice President Dick Cheney, and President George W. Bush. Steele won the Republican primary but lost the general election to Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD). Steele’s opponents linked him with then-President Bush, who faced low approval ratings at the time. 14

After the election, Steele denied accusations of misappropriating campaign funds after it was discovered that he had paid $37,000 to Brown Sugar Unlimited, a company run by his sister, Monica Turner. Steele maintained that he didn’t breach any election regulations and that the payments were for legitimate catering and internet services work. 15

After leaving the governor’s office in 2007, Steele became the chairman of GOPAC, a national Republican candidate training group co-founded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA). He simultaneously worked at the law firm Dewey & Lebouf for two years. The Washington D.C.-based law firm specializes in government affairs in Africa. 16

In 2008, Steele coined the phrase, “drill, baby, drill,” during a speech at a Republican convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. 17

Republican National Committee Chairman

In 2009, Steele became chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Some commenters claimed that Steele was elected because he was a Black leader within the Republican Party, to counterbalance newly elected President Barack Obama (D). Steele claims his leadership revived the Republican Party after heavy losses in the 2008 election. In 2010, Republican Congressional fundraising reached a record high of $198 million, and Republicans gained 63 House seats, more than any election since 1928. 18 19

However, in 2011, the Guardian reported that Steele had been “ignominiously” ousted from his seat after “failing to provide inspirational leadership, being gaffe-prone and unable to attract the kind of big donations the party has come to expect.” Steele ran for a second term despite little support and withdrew his candidacy during the third voting round as he continued to fall behind other candidates. 20

Steele was often criticized for out-of-control spending as RNC chairman, including “$17,000 for private jet travel, $13,000 for limousines and car services and $9,000 for a trip to the Beverly Hills hotel.” 21  Steele’s most notable scandal was the revelation that one of his aides had spent $2,000 at a sexually themed bar in California at a time when the RNC was tens of millions of dollars in debt. 22

While under mounting pressure from critics, Steele was asked if he believed he was held to a higher standard because of his race, and he responded, “The honest answer is, ‘yes.’ Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It’s a different role for me to play and others to play and that’s just the reality of it. But you take that as part of the nature of it.” Steele’s critics accused him of playing the race card, and then-President Obama’s press secretary commented, “I think Michael Steele’s problem isn’t the race card, it’s the credit card.” 23

Later Career

In 2011, Steele became a board member of Cancer Treatment Centers of America and a political analyst on MSNBC. 24

In 2018, Steele became chairman of the U.S. Vote Foundation, an absentee ballot registration service. In the same year, Steele became a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. 25

Michael Steele was a notable dissenter from President Donald Trump within the Republican Party. Steele strongly disagreed with President Trump’s protectionist economic policies, which erected tariffs against foreign industrial producers. He also criticized the president’s endorsement of arming teachers to combat school shooters, his disparaging remarks about immigrants from poor countries, and his support for deficit spending. Steele has called President Trump “delusional” and after he criticized MSNBC where Steele works as a pundit, urged Trump to get “off his Twitter crack.” 26

In August 2019, Steele co-authored an article supporting the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a proposed agreement between the states to give all electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the national popular vote. Steele argued that Republicans still had a good chance of winning under a popular vote system, and it would prove especially advantageous to Republicans if Democrats managed to achieve narrow majorities in traditional red states like Texas and Florida. 27

References

  1. “Task Force Members.” National Task Force on Election Crises. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/members.
  2. [1] “Michael S. Steele.” Maryland Manual On-Line. Accessed June 8, 2022.  https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/08conoff/ltgov/former/html/msa13921.html.
  3. Burton, Danielle. “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Michael Steele.” U.S. News & World Report. April 7, 2008. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/04/07/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-michael-steele.
  4. Duffy, Jim. “Mother Knows Best.” Johns Hopkins Magazine. April 2005. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/0405web/steele.html.
  5. Burton, Danielle. “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Michael Steele.” U.S. News & World Report. April 7, 2008. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/04/07/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-michael-steele.
  6. Duffy, Jim. “Mother Knows Best.” Johns Hopkins Magazine. April 2005. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/0405web/steele.html.
  7. Duffy, Jim. “Mother Knows Best.” Johns Hopkins Magazine. April 2005. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/0405web/steele.html.
  8. Duffy, Jim. “Mother Knows Best.” Johns Hopkins Magazine. April 2005. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/0405web/steele.html.
  9. Burton, Danielle. “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Michael Steele.” U.S. News & World Report. April 7, 2008. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/04/07/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-michael-steele.
  10. “Michael Steele.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-steele-116b0436/details/experience/.
  11. Duffy, Jim. “Mother Knows Best.” Johns Hopkins Magazine. April 2005. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/0405web/steele.html.
  12. “Michael S. Steele.” Maryland Manual On-Line. Accessed June 8, 2022.  https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/08conoff/ltgov/former/html/msa13921.html.
  13. “Michael Steele.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-steele-116b0436/details/experience/.
  14. Sokolove, Michael. “Why is Michael Steele a Republican Candidate?” New York Times Magazine. March 26, 2006. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/magazine/326steele.html?ex=1301029200en=d81046cf222230b7ei=5088partner=rssnytemc=rss&pagewanted=all
  15. Lipton, Eric. “New G.O.P Chairman Defends Payment to Sister.” New York Times. February 7, 2009. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/us/politics/08steele.html.
  16. “Michael Steele.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-steele-116b0436/details/experience/.
  17. Carnevale, Mary Lu. “Steele Gives GOP Delegates New Cheer: ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!.” Wall Street Journal. September 3, 2008. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-5931.
  18. “Michael Steele.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-steele-116b0436/details/experience/.
  19. MacAskill, Ewen. “Michael Steele, Republican chairman, ousted.” Guardian. January 14, 2011. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/14/michael-steele-republican-chairman-ousted.
  20. [1] MacAskill, Ewen. “Michael Steele, Republican chairman, ousted.” Guardian. January 14, 2011. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/14/michael-steele-republican-chairman-ousted
  21. Karl, Jonathan; Khan, Huma. “New Troubles for RNC Chair Michael Steele.” ABC News. April 6, 2010. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/michael-steele-facing-troubles-rnc/story?id=10296291.
  22. MacAskill, Ewen. “Michael Steele, Republican chairman, ousted.” Guardian. January 14, 2011. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/14/michael-steele-republican-chairman-ousted.
  23. Karl, Jonathan; Khan, Huma. “New Troubles for RNC Chair Michael Steele.” ABC News. April 6, 2010. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/michael-steele-facing-troubles-rnc/story?id=10296291.
  24. “Michael Steele.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-steele-116b0436/details/experience/.
  25. [1] “Michael Steele.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-steele-116b0436/details/experience/.
  26. Fritze, John. “Maryland’s Michael Steele, once the national Republican Party leader, searches for his place in Trump’s GOP.” Baltimore Sun. April 8, 2018. Accessed June 10, 2022. https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-steele-trump-20180313-story.html.
  27. Anuzis, Saul; Steele, Michael. “Why Republicans Should Get Behind a National Popular Vote.” August 28, 2019. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/28/gop-national-popular-vote-227915/
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