Campaign for President: The Managers Look at 2016

Capturing a “first draft of history” about presidential campaigns from their managers, senior strategist, media and political observers has been the focus of the Harvard Institute of Politics' Campaign for President: The Managers Look conference every four years since 1972.

In the aftermath of 2016’s tumultuous and ground-breaking election cycle, insiders’ views came into focus on November 30 and December 1, 2016 as the key players from the Democratic and Republican campaigns convened in Cambridge for Campaign for President: The Managers Look at 2016, organized in collaboration with the Shorenstein Center on the Media, Politics and Public Policy.

Click on the links below to listen to audio from each session:
Roundtable Discussion: The General Election
Opening Roundtable Session
Panel Discussion: The Media and Election 2016
Democratic Primaries and Convention
Republican Primaries and Convention
Interview with David Fahrenthold
Interview with Nate Silver

Roundtable Discussion: The General Election

Representatives from the Trump and Clinton campaigns joined together to discuss the general election. The roundtable was moderated by Dan Balz of The Washington Post, Katherine Miller of Buzzfeed, and Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC.

Participants

Clinton: Robby Mook, Mandy Grunwald, Teddy Goff, Karen Finney, Jennifer Palmieri, Joel Benenson

Trump: Kellyanne Conway, David Bossie, Tony Fabrizio, Brad Parscale, Corey Lewandowski

Opening Roundtable Session

One person from each campaign was asked to briefly outline their initial campaign strategy. Lois Romano, Political Correspondent for The Washington Post and Peter Hamby, Head of News for Snapchat moderated the opening roundtable session.

Participants

Terry Sullivan (Rubio), Mike DuHaime (Christie), Danny Diaz (Bush), Rick Wiley (Walker), Timmy Teepell (Jindal), Christian Ferry (Graham), Frank Sadler (Fiorina), Chip Englander (Paul), Jeff Roe (Cruz), Sarah Sanders (Huckabee), Ed Brookover (Carson), Corey Lewandowski & Michael Glassner (Trump), Robby Mook (Clinton), Jeff Weaver (Sanders), Dave Hamrick (O'Malley)

Panel Discussion: The Media and Election 2016

Sasha Issenberg of Bloomberg Politics moderated a panel discussion on the media and the 2016 Election.

Panel speakers

Marty Baron, Executive Editor, The Washington Post; Kathleen Carroll, Executive Editor, AP; Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Global Communications, Marketing and Public Policy, Facebook; Jeff Zucker, President, CNN Worldwide

Democratic Primaries and Convention

Kasie Hunt, political correspondent for NBC News, Abby Phillip, reporter for The Washington Post, and Jeff Zeleny, senior Washington correspondent for CNN, moderated this discussion with representatives from the Democratic campaigns.

Participants

Clinton: Robby Mook, Mandy Grunwald, Joel Benenson, Karen Finney, Jennifer Palmieri, Charlie Baker; Sanders: Jeff Weaver, Mark Longabaugh; O'Malley: Dave Hamrick, Lis Smith

Republican Primaries and Convention

Molly Ball, staff writer for The Atlantic, Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent for ABC News, and Jerry Seib, Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, moderated the discussion with representatives from the Republican campaigns.

Participants

Bush: Danny Diaz, David Kochel; Rubio: Terry Sullivan, Todd Harris; Christie: Mike DuHaime; Walker: Rick Wiley; Jindal: Timmy Teepell; Graham: Christian Ferry; Fiorina: Frank Sadler; Paul: Chip Englander; Cruz: Jeff Roe, Jason Johnson; Huckabee: Sarah Sanders , Chip Saltsman; Carson: Ed Brookover, Barry Bennett; Trump: Corey Lewandowski, Michael Glassner, Tony Fabrizio, Paul Manafort