Christina Pushaw
Born
Christina Maria Pushaw

1990 (age 33–34)
EducationUniversity of Southern California (BA)
Johns Hopkins University (MA)
Occupations
Political partyRepublican

Christina Maria Pushaw (born 1990) is an American political aide, serving as rapid response director for the 2024 presidential campaign of Ron DeSantis. She is a member of the Republican Party.

Early life and undergraduate education

Pushaw grew up in Malibu, California,[1] but spent time in Florida as her father worked as a visiting professor to Florida State University in 1999.[2]

She obtained a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Southern California in 2012.[3] While an undergrad, she volunteered for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.[4] She heard McCain speak about supporting the country of Georgia during its war with Russia[3] saying "today we are all Georgians".[4]

She also volunteered at the Reagan Library in California, where she encountered Mikheil Saakashvili while he was lecturing in California.[4]

Early career and graduate studies

After graduating, she moved to Georgia, originally intending to be part of a program for native English speakers to teach English, but ended up working in few different educational positions.[4] She also formed a Georgian non-profit, New Leaders Initiative, to teach young Georgians about democracy and international affairs.[3] She worked at the American-Georgian Education Center as a college admissions counselor, specializing in applications for American schools. Pushaw also worked at an exchange program that organized for Georgian students to study abroad in America, called My World Foundation.

Afterwards, she pursued a master's degree in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins University in 2017.[3] While doing her graduate field research in Ukraine, her class was able to meet with Saakashvili.[4]

From June 2017 to August 2019, Pushaw worked in Washington, D.C. for Stand Together, a philanthropic organization founded by Charles Koch.[3] At Stand Together, she claims to have worked on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the passing of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.[5]

Career

Work for Mikheil Saakashvili

Pushaw began working for Mikheil Saakashvili in 2019 as a communications and media adviser.[5] She had started out working as a volunteer in 2018[6] and stopped working for Saakashvili in December 2020.[7]

Saakashvili led the bloodless 2003 Rose Revolution which ended Soviet-era leadership in the country of Georgia, and strengthened ties with the United States while he was president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013.[7] He lived in exile for 8 years, in both Ukraine and the Netherlands[8] and was arrested when he returned to Georgia in 2021.[7]

As a result of her work, the Department of Justice reached out to Pushaw and asked to register as a foreign agent in June 2022 per the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[7] She hired former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael R. Sherwin, to represent her for the FARA registration.[9] The act requires "foreign agents", defined as individuals or entities engaged in domestic lobbying or advocacy for foreign governments, organizations, or persons ("foreign principals"), to register with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and disclose their relationship, activities, and related financial compensation.[10]

Journalism

Pushaw worked as an freelance journalist and had work published in national conservative outlets like The National Interest and Human Events.[2] In February 2021, Pushaw published an article in Human Events criticizing Rebekah Jones, a Florida Department of Health employee who was fired in May 2020 for insubordination.[11] It was the first national story to point out holes in Jones claims and brought her to the attention of DeSantis' administration.[2]

Work for Ron DeSantis

In March 2021, Pushaw wrote a letter to the governor's office expressing interest in working for DeSantis' communication team.[12] She was then hired as press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in May 2021.[12] Matt Dixon with Politico noted she had an unorthodox and aggressive style and was hostile to media outlets perceived to be critical of DeSantis.[13] She worked in the position until August 2022 before leaving to join DeSantis's 2022 gubernatorial reelection and later 2024 presidential campaign teams as rapid response director.[13]

In August 2021, Pushaw's Twitter account was locked for 12 hours for "harassing behavior".[14] She demanded the Associated Press change a report that a DeSantis donor had invested in a COVID-19 treatment, Regeneron, that DeSantis had been promoting.[14] She called for her social media followers to "drag them" but said she did not mean to call for violence, that it was a slang term, and she deleted the tweet so as to not be misunderstood.[14] Viktorya Vilk with PEN America did confirm that one slang definition defines "drag them" as "to roast (make fun of/mock) someone very hard"; however, it also seems to "imply or encourage people to go on the attack."[14]

In January 2022, she deleted a social media post after facing backlash.[15] In the post, she questioned if protestors wearing Nazi symbols were genuine or there to generate backlash, similar to an incident the previous year meant to smear Glenn Youngkin who was running for governor of Virginia.[15]

She posted on social media in support of the Parental Rights in Education Act, calling the "Don't Say Gay" nickname given by its opponents inaccurate: "The bill that liberals inaccurately call 'Don't Say Gay' would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill. If you're against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don't denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn't make the rules."[16] Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith responded, stating it was a bigotted attack against LGBTQ people and calling for her to resign.[16] In a statement to AP News, she stated "I have never stated that all groomers are LGBT, all LGBT people are groomers, or anything of that nature."[17]

In September 2022, Pushaw gave a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Miami, Florida.[18] In her speech, Pushaw suggested conservatives be aware of "media activists" who "see themselves not as journalists, not as reporters, not as investigators but as activists, but as advocates, as political operatives, as gatekeepers and as arbiters of truth. Like they believe that they can define reality. If, you know, they stick to their talking points and censor and attack all those and discredit those dissenting views."[18] Ron DeSantis was one of the keynote speakers at the event.[19]

References

  1. ↑ Farhi, Paul (July 27, 2022). "DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw makes sure reporters feel the burn". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Kirkland, Jordan; Burgess, Brian (May 17, 2021). "Christina Pushaw, outspoken Rebekah Jones critic, tapped as DeSantis' press secretary". The Capitolist. Archived from the original on May 24, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Mathis-Lilley, Ben (April 21, 2022). "How One Florida Woman With Twitter Problems Plunged Us Into a Nightmarish National Conversation About "Grooming"". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Tavberidze, Vazha (Dec 27, 2017). "Saakashvili as an Inspiration". Georgia Today. Archived from the original on Dec 27, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Klas, Mary Ellen (August 12, 2022). "DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw moves to join his campaign staff". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  6. ↑ Ogles, Jacob (June 8, 2022). "Christina Pushaw registers as foreign agent, citing prior work for ex-Georgian President". Florida Politics. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Lahut, Jake; Haltiwanger, John; Leonard, Kimberly (Jan 6, 2022). "DeSantis press secretary registers as a foreign agent following DOJ letter". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  8. ↑ "Georgia ex-leader Saakashvili has Ukrainian citizenship restored". BBC News. 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  9. ↑ Wheelock, Tristian (June 8, 2022). "DeSantis spokeswoman retroactively registers as foreign agent". NBC News. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Foreign Agents Registration Act: An Overview" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. March 7, 2019.
  11. ↑ Pushaw, Christina (February 2, 2021). "The "Florida COVID-19 Whistleblower" Saga Is a Big Lie". Human Events. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
  12. 1 2 Wilson, Kirby (July 27, 2022). "Ron DeSantis impressed Christina Pushaw so much, she asked him for a job". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021.
  13. 1 2 Dixon, Matt (August 12, 2022). "DeSantis' press secretary Christina Pushaw headed to his campaign operation". POLITICO. Archived from the original on August 13, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Twitter Suspends Account Of Ron DeSantis Press Secretary After 'Bullying' AP Reporter". CBS Miami. August 21, 2021.
  15. 1 2 Ritchie, Bruce (Jan 31, 2022). "DeSantis aide deletes tweet suggesting Nazi protesters were Democratic operatives". Politico.
  16. 1 2 Ogles, Jacob (Mar 6, 2022). "DeSantis Press Secretary Spews 'Unbridled Hatred' of LGBTQ+ Community". Advocate.
  17. ↑ Kruesi, Kimberlee; Phan, Karena (March 29, 2022). "'Grooming': The ubiquitous buzzword in LGBTQ school debate".
  18. 1 2 Wulfsohn, Joseph (September 13, 2022). "DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw touts blocking access to liberal media 'activists': 'Cut them off'". Fox News. Archived from the original on April 30, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
  19. ↑ Scheckner, Jesse (Sep 12, 2022). "Ron DeSantis plays greatest hits — and then some — in keynote speech to enthusiastic NatCon crowd".
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