Chris Stirewalt

American political news commentator

Chris Stirewalt
Born	Wheeling, West Virginia, U.S.
Education	Hampden-Sydney College
Occupation	Political news commentator

Christopher W. Stirewalt is an American political analyst who is the politics editor for NewsNation^[1] and is a contributing editor for The Dispatch.^[2] Previously he had worked for the Fox News Channel, which he joined in July 2010. He authored and hosted Fox News Halftime Report newsletter^[3] and co-hosted the podcast Perino & Stirewalt: I'll Tell You What with Dana Perino.^[4]

Life and career

Chris Stirewalt, a Wheeling, West Virginia, native, was a 1993 graduate of the Linsly School.^[5] He began his journalism career at age 17 writing baseball box scores for The Wheeling Intelligencer.^[5] A 1997 graduate of Hampden-Sydney College^[6] in Virginia, he later served as politics editor at the Charleston Daily Mail and West Virginia Media.^[7]

He co-hosted the podcast "Perino & Stirewalt: I'll Tell You What" from 2016 to 2020.^[8] Stirewalt frequently appeared on Fox News programs.^[7] His role involved serving as the network's "main on-air analyst of polls and voting trends."^[9] Stirewalt hosted the weekly Power Play show on Fox.^[10]

Fox News fired Stirewalt in January 2021.^[1]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14] In February 2021, Stirewalt joined The Dispatch as a contributing editor.^[15]

On May 24, 2022, Stirewalt joined NewsNation as its political editor.^[16] On January 18, 2024, NewsNation announced that Stirewalt will host a new Sunday public affairs program The Hill Sunday which will debut on March 3, 2024.^[17]

2020 presidential election

Arnon Mishkin, Fox News decision desk chief for the 2020 presidential election, called the state of Arizona and its 11 electoral votes to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at 11:20 p.m. Eastern time on election night, November 3, 2020. The Associated Press, who collaborated with Fox on a voter analysis survey that was used to determine the election results, seconded the call of Arizona for Biden.^[18]

Bill Hemmer, standing at the Fox News election map, was caught by surprise when Arizona "flipped to blue". "What is happening here? Why is Arizona blue?" he asked. "Did we just call it? Did we just make a call in Arizona?"^[19] "OK, time out. This is a big development," commented co-anchor Bret Baier, adding "Biden picking up Arizona changes the . . math."^[19]

Stirewalt quickly came onscreen to defend the network's decision. "How can you call Arizona, but we can't call Ohio?" Baier asked him. "Because the races are very different," he replied, explaining that vote margins were too great in Arizona for the Republican candidate to overcome. As for Ohio, Stirewalt said, "There is just too much vote out, and there's too much potentially heavily Democratic mail vote that may flop in at the end to get too froggy right now with Ohio." He assured viewers that "We're going to be careful, cautious, and earnest."^[19]

"Arizona is doing just what we expected it to do and we remain serene and pristine," Stirewalt later said.^[20] He dismissed voter fraud claims from Republicans, saying, "Lawsuits, schmawsuits — we haven't seen any evidence yet that there's anything wrong."^[21] Expressing pride in "being first to project that Joe Biden would win Arizona, and very happy to defend that call in the face of a public backlash egged on by former President Trump," in a Los Angeles Times op-ed, Stirewalt stated that: "Being right and beating the competition is no act of heroism; it's just meeting the job description of the work I love."^[22] He emphasized in a Vanity Fair interview that he was "not responsible" personally for the call; instead he credited "an awesome team of fabulous nerds" at the Fox's Decision Desk HQ and Fox News editor at the time, Bill Sammon. Stirewalt saw nothing "out of the ordinary" when his team made the Arizona announcement on election night. In hindsight, he realized the impact as "effective in defeating Trump's attempt to disrupt the election––to steal an election, because yes, the narrative was broken."^[23]

"We were kind of out there by ourselves, and through that process, we became a focus of all of this rage, all of this anger," Stirewalt adds of the impact of the early call.^[23]

"Chris Stirewalt's leaving had nothing to do with the correct Arizona call by the Fox decision desk," Rupert Murdoch stated in an email to The Washington Post, rather Murdoch was concerned about "Stirewalt's on-air manner, which he perceived as overly casual for a discussion of the election results." Though respected in the Fox newsroom, analysis of "ratings on a minute-by-minute basis" indicated viewership flattening or falling during Stirewalt's frequent appearances.^[24]

Publication

Stirewalt's first book, Every Man a King: A Short, Colorful History of American Populists, was published in September 2018^[25] by Twelve.^[26] In it he writes about Andrew Jackson, William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Huey Long, George Wallace, Pat Buchanan, and H. Ross Perot.^[27]^[28]

He is the author of the book, Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back, published by Hachette imprint Center Street in August 2022.^[29]

References

^ ^a ^b Grabenstein, Hannah (June 12, 2022). "Who is Chris Stirewalt and why is he testifying in the Jan. 6 hearings?". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved June 13, 2022. Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News political editor who was fired by the cable network after the 2020 election ... Stirewalt was fired in the aftermath of conservative backlash to Fox News correctly calling Arizona for Biden in the 2020 election.
^ "Chris Stirewalt". The Dispatch. Archived from the original on June 7, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
^ "Stream Chris Stirewalt Shows & Exclusive Content". Fox Nation. Archived from the original on January 25, 2020. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
^ "Chris Stirewalt on His Podcast and News of the Day". C-SPAN. August 8, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Fox News analyst speaks in hometown of Wheeling". West Virginia Press Association. April 14, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
^ "From Hill to Hill". Hampden–Sydney College. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Stirewalt, Chris". Self-Insurance Institute of America, Inc. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
^ Steinberg, Brian (September 13, 2016). "Dana Perino, Chris Stirewalt to Host New Sunday Show on Fox News Channel". Variety. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
^ Battaglio, Stephen (September 23, 2019). "Inside Fox News' polling 'nerdquarium,' whose numbers don't lie whether Trump likes them or not". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 23, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
^ "Chris Stirewalt". Washington Examiner. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
^ Stanton, Andrew (June 11, 2022). "What Chris Stirewalt, Fired by Fox News, Has Said Ahead of 1/6 Testimony". Newsweek. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
^ Calia, Mike (June 10, 2022). "Fired Fox News editor Chris Stirewalt says he will testify before Jan. 6 riot committee". CNBC. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
^ Battaglio, Stephen (January 19, 2021). "Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt out in company restructuring". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
^ Ellison, Sarah (January 19, 2021). "Top Fox News managers depart amid Murdoch's concerns over controversial Arizona election night projection". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
^ Isgur, Sarah (February 5, 2021). "No Ragrets". The Dispatch. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
^ Mastrangelo, Dominick (May 24, 2022). "Ousted Fox News editor Chris Stirewalt hired by NewsNation". The Hill. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
^ Steinberg, Brian (January 18, 2024). "NewsNation Dispatches Chris Stirewalt to Fight in Sunday-Show Battles". Variety. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
^ Battaglio, Stephen (November 5, 2020). "Why Fox News analyst Arnon Mishkin called Arizona for Biden on election night". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 5, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c Peters, Justin (November 4, 2020). "Fox News' Arizona Call Drove Fox News Crazy". Slate. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
^ Bauder, David (November 6, 2020). "Pressure mounts, rifts emerge at Fox News over election". AP NEWS. Associated Press. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
^ Hsu, Tiffany; Koblin, John (November 7, 2020). "Fox News Meets Trump's Fraud Claims With Skepticism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 5, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
^ Stirewalt, Chris (January 28, 2021). "Op-Ed: I called Arizona for Biden on Fox News. Here's what I learned". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
^ ^a ^b Ecarma, Caleb (January 29, 2021). "Fox News Political Editor's Life Got Thrown Upside Down After Making Accurate Election Call". Vanity Fair. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
^ Ellison, Sarah; Barr, Jeremy (February 2, 2021). "Sean Hannity is the face of the post-Trump identity crisis at Fox News". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021.
^ Coyne, John R. Jr. (September 12, 2018). "Gathering the populists who made their silent majorities roar". The Washington Times. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
^ Stirewalt, Chris (2018). Every Man a King. Twelve. ISBN 9781538729793.
^ "Every Man a King: A Short, Colorful History of American Populists". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
^ Welton, Benjamin (September 11, 2018). "REVIEW: Every Man a King: A Short, Colorful History of American Populists". New York Journal of Books. Grand Central. ISBN 9781538729762. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
^ Stirewalt, Chris (August 23, 2022). Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back. Center Street. ISBN 978-1546002635.