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Michael Steele

Former Republican National Committee chairman (2009 to 2011)

(Lauren Victoria Burke/
ABC News via Getty Images)

Why He Matters

After a disastrous showing in the 2008 elections, the Republican Party was looking for a fresh start. What they got was Steele.

The former Maryland lieutenant governor triumphed over incumbent Mike Duncan in a turbulent January 2009 race to head the Republican National Committee, becoming the first African-American to hold that position.

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"It's time for something completely different," he said in his acceptance speech.

But Steele's version of "different" didn't please all Republicans. He frequently found himself in hot water with members of his own party because of his controversial statements, including those in a 2010 book titled, "Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda." At the start of his tenure, he called conservative icon Rush Limbaugh "incendiary and ugly" and suggested Mitt Romney didn't succeed in the 2008 presidential race because the GOP base "had issues with Mormonism."

Despite persisent reports that his job was at stake, Steele was smiling after Election Day 2009, when Republicans won gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia. In 2010, he had even more reason to cheer as the GOP recaptured the House majority and picked up significant seats in the Senate.

After the 2009 contests, Steele crowed that Democrats had been "incredibly arrogant." "I'm in the business of winning," he said. "My responsibility is to be the chairman that I was elected to be, to move this party out of the ash heap of losses onto the solid, strong ground of winning elections. And I think we had a good start last night."

Despite sucess at the polls, many Republican insiders seemed tired of Steele's antics. It was a shock when he annouced he would run for a second term as RNC chairman in January 2011.

But a field of strong candidates had already emerged to challenge Steele, including Steele's former ally Reince Priebus and former Michigan GOP Chair Saul Anuzis.

Steele withdrew his name from contention after the fourth round of voting, ending his tenure as RNC chairman. "I will step aside because I think the party is ready for something different," said Steele.

In His Own Words

"It is wrong to believe the voters have suddenly become liberal,” Steele said shortly after the 2008 election, which left the Democrats in control of both the White House and Congress. “They have just lost any sense of confidence that the Republican Party holds the answers to their problems.”

More on: Michael Steele

At a Glance
Path to Power
The Issues
The Network
Additional Resources

Background

At a Glance

Career History: Maryland Lieutenant Governor (2003 to 2007); chairman of the Maryland Republican Party (2000 to 2003); Chair of Prince George's County's Republican Central Committee (1994 to 2000)
Birthday: October 19, 1958
Hometown: Prince George's County, Md. and Washington, D.C.
Alma Mater: Johns Hopkins University, B.A. (international relations), 1981; Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University (no degree earned); Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. 1991

Spouse: Andrea
Religion: Catholic
Office: 310 First Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003
Website

Path to Power

Steele was born on October 19, 1958, at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County, Md. He was adopted as an infant by Maebell and William Steele and raised in nearby Washington, D.C., attending Archbishop Carroll High School, where he was class president senior year and voted "Man of the Year."

Growing up, Steele's family was solidly Democratic. (pictures of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., hung on the family's living room wall.) But Steele's rightward shift was influenced by two people: his mother and Ronald Reagan. Steele's father died in 1962 due to complications from alcoholism. His mother refused to go on welfare, choosing instead to support the family by working for minimum wage as a laundress. Steele said he later saw the same attitude reflected in Reagan's "pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps" message.

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Steele did plenty of bootstrap-pulling on his own; he was one of the first members of his family to go to college, earning a bachelor's degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University in 1981. After graduating, he was invited to be a member of the university's board of trustees, on which he served until 1985.

Steele spent three years at the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University, but left for a career in law. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991.

After law school, Steele joined the Washington, D.C., law firm Cleary, Gottlieb,Steen & Hamilton as a corporate securities attorney. According to his official biography, he specialized in "sophisticated financial transactions on behalf of Wall Street underwriters." His work for the firm took him to Tokyo, where he learned to speak some Japanese.

After he realized he wouldn't make partner in 1997, Steele left Cleary, Gottlieb and worked as corporate counsel for the Mills Corporation, a real-estate development firm. But he soon went out on his own, starting a consulting firm called the Steele Group in 1998.

Maryland Republican Operative and Lieutenant Governor

In the mid-1990s, Steele began his fast rise in the Maryland Republican Party. In 1994, he became chair of Prince George's County's Republican Central Committee. Steele held that position until December 2000, when he became the chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, the first African-American to head a Republican Party state branch. He held that position until 2002, when Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich asked him to join his ticket as lieutenant governor.

The infamous "Oreo Cookie Incident" took place during that campaign. Accounts differ about what happened at the 2002 debate between Ehrlich and his Democratic competitor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, but Ehrlich's camp claimed that Democrats in the audience passed out Oreo cookies, which they then threw at Steele. Some have used the term "Oreo" as a derogatory racial reference to someone who has black skin but acts white. Though claims that protestors "pelted" Steele with Oreos have been questioned, both the Associated Press and Steele himself said they saw the cookies on the floor of the auditorium.

Ehrlich and Steele won the governor's race in an upset. Steele became not only the first African-American elected Maryland lieutenant governor, but also the first African American to hold any statewide office in Maryland. He was the highest ranking African-American Republican at the time.

In 2004, Steele, who is known as an excellent speaker, was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention in New York City.

In 2005, at the urging of national Republicans eager to show off a talented African-American Republican, Steele launched a campaign for the open Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.). Maryland is a heavily Democratic state and Steele started out with a big disadvantage, but 2006 proved to be a terrible year for Republicans, and Steele lost to his Democratic challenger, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)

GOPAC

Steele then became the chairman of GOPAC, a political action committee originally founded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) aimed at "preparing a new generation of Americans to lead our country."

Republican National Committee

In November 2008, Steele announced his candidacy for the RNC chairmanship. The Washington Post called his decision, "a move sure to shake up the evolving race for control of a party demoralized by broad losses at the ballot box."

The Jan. 30, 2009 election began as a six-man race, and the 168 RNC members cast five ballots before whittling the race down to Steele and the more conservative South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, who had stirred controversy when it was revealed he used to belong to a country club that did not accept African-American members. Steele won with 91 votes to Dawson's 77.

Tennessee RNC chairman Chip Saltsman also considered running, but his chances of winning were crushed after he distributed a CD at a holiday party featuring a song called, "Barack, the Magic Negro."He dropped out of the contest the day before the vote.

The Issues

"After two devastating election cycles, the party has reached a crossroads," Steele said in November 2008 as he announced his candidacy for RNC chairman. Steele compared the Republican Party to someone who has "hunkered down" in a corner with no idea what to do next, and said, "I think I may have some keys to open the door, some juice to turn on the lights."

For Steele, that didn't mean a move towards the center. "It is wrong to believe the voters have suddenly become liberal," Steele said shortly after the 2008 election, which left the Democrats in control of both the White House and Congress. "They have just lost any sense of confidence that the Republican Party holds the answers to their problems." He said that any plan for the future of the party should be based on "our conservative values and core principles."

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Steele made good on his promise to deliver something "completely different," when, in his first act as RNC chair, he asked the entire staff of the RNC to resign. Several senior aides had already submitted their resignations after Steele's election, Politico reported.

In May 2009, Steele proposed three ways in which the Republican Party was "turning a corner" in a Politico column. First, he pledged the GOP would be forward-looking, calling it "the party of new ideas." Second, Steele said Republicans would "not shy away from voicing our opposition to the president's policies." Finally, he said the GOP would "seize upon momentum for a GOP resurgence that is already underway in states and local communities."

Troubled Tenure

But Steele's tenure as RNC chairman was rocky, and his off-the-cuff style got him into trouble.

He became embroiled in a war of words with Rush Limbaugh after calling the conservative talk-show host's rhetoric "incendiary" and "ugly." Limbaugh fought back, and Steele walked back his comments. Democrats seized upon the highly-public spat to paint Steele as ineffectual and Limbaugh as the real head of the Republican Party.

In March 2009, Steele had to defend his anti-abortion rights credentials after telling an interviewer he supported "individual choice" in reference to abortion. He released a statement saying, "I am pro-life, always have been, always will be."

Steele came under fire from his own party in July 2010, when he said at a fundraiser that the war in Afghanistan was a war of "Obama's choosing" and that America may not be able to win. Correctly remembering that it was Obama's predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush, who invaded Afghanistan, prominent Democrats and Republicans wondered aloud if Steele should be running the RNC.

Health-Care Reform

As Barack Obama began his push for overhauling the nation's health-care system in 2009, Steele established himself as a strong Republican voice against it.

When asked by a reporter in July 2009 if the Obama health plan was equivalent to socialism, Steele resonded briefly, "Yes. Next question."

He criticized the cost of the bill, which had been estimated between $600 billion and $1 trillion, saying, "It is more debt our children will have to pay because this reckless administration has an unrestrainable urge to splurge."

The Network

Steele has advised politicians throughout his career, especially African-American Republicans. Through his consulting firm, he advised former House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts (R-Okla.),to whom he has also made campaign contributions.

In 2004, Steele stumped for George W. Bush on a tour organized by then-Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie.

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Additional Resources