Experts

Mary Kate Cary

Practitioner Senior Fellow

Fast Facts

  • Former speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush
  • Provides political commentary for NPR, CNN, Fox News Channel, and CTV (Canada)
  • Executive producer of 41ON41, a documentary about President George H.W. Bush
  • Expertise on presidential communications, speechwriting

Areas Of Expertise

  • Domestic Affairs
  • Media and the Press
  • Governance
  • Elections
  • Leadership
  • Politics
  • The Presidency

Mary Kate Cary, practitioner senior fellow, served as a White House speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to early 1992, authoring more than 100 of his presidential addresses. She also has ghostwritten several books related to President Bush’s life and career and served as senior writer for communications for the 1988 Bush-Quayle presidential campaign.

Currently an adjunct professor in the University of Virginia’s Department of Politics, Cary teaches classes on political speechwriting; the greatest American political speeches; and the 2020 presidential election. In her first year in the politics department, she was recognized by the UVA Student Council for excellence in teaching.

Cary currently chairs the advisory board of the George and Barbara Bush Foundation, where she has been a member since 2004. The Bush Foundation oversees the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum and the Bush School of Government & Public Service, with campuses at Texas A&M University and in Washington, D.C.. In 2014, she was the creator and executive producer of 41ON41, a documentary about President George H. W. Bush, which premiered internationally on CNN. She is also a producer of President in Waiting, a documentary about the modern vice presidency that features interviews with all of the living vice presidents, which debuted on CNN in December 2020.

Following her tenure at the White House, Cary served as spokesman and deputy director of policy and communications for U.S. Attorney General William Barr and deputy director of communications at the Republican National Committee under Chairman Haley Barbour. She also served as a long-time columnist at US News & World Report, writing on politics and the presidency.

Cary is currently a member of the Ronald Reagan Institute's Women in Civics Advisory Council; UVA's Darden School of Business Leadership Communication Council; and the national advisory board of The Network of Enlightened Women, which supports conservative female leaders on more than 50 college campuses. She is a long-time member of the Judson Welliver Society of former presidential speechwriters.

Mary Kate Cary News Feed

CTV
Former First Lady Barbara Bush dies
Mary Kate Cary, former Bush 41 speechwriter and Miller Center Senior Fellow, is interviewed on the Canadian CTV network
Mary Kate Cary CTV (Canada)
Washington Post
A lesson learned in Barbara Bush’s bathing suit
The first time I met Barbara Bush, I was wearing her bathing suit. I was terrified. She was gracious.
Mary Kate Cary The Washington Post
WTOP
‘Just unconditional love’ – Barbara Bush’s 1989 DC AIDS-hospice visit changed the HIV conversation
The images of Barbara Bush hugging babies, and perhaps more importantly an adult man with AIDS, sent a powerful message of compassion and understanding during a period of fearfulness about the disease. Her words and actions during the largely unscripted exchange dramatically changed the nation’s understanding and first impression of people infected with HIV. That year “was the heights of the AIDS crisis,” said Mary Kate Cary, a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1992. “It was before any kind of retroviral drug had been invented yet.”
Mary Kate Cary WTOP
Barbara Bush interacting with a child undergoing cancer treatment
A lesson learned in Barbara Bush's bathing suit
After Mrs. Bush's passing, her husband's former speechwriter remembers how she showed her to be big-hearted.
Mary Kate Cary
Bipodisan
Kings of the Hill
t’s All Things Capitol Hill this week on Bipodisan: Mary Kate Cary and Jean Card (R’s) lament the retirement of Speaker Ryan, while Paul Orzulak and Robert Schlesinger (D) wonder about the timing of the announcement. All four agree on the cringe-worthiness of some of the questions posed to the founder of “The Facebook” in the hearings, and on some reasonable measures that could be taken to protect users’ privacy. Plus their reaction to reports of a profane tirade in a local grocery store by The Mystery Congressman.
Mary Kate Cary Bipodisan
Bipodisan
Speeches, poetry, and jokes
This week’s episode comes from the Windy City, where Paul and Mary Kate take a break from politics to interview former Obama speechwriter David Litt and former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. For the 50th anniversary of his death this week, the four talk about what exactly made Martin Luther King Jr.’s oratory so unique. Then the three speechwriters and a poet give listeners tips on getting rid of writer’s block and finding inspiration; David talks about writing comedy at Funny or Die; and Robert tells the World’s Most Profound Joke.
Mary Kate Cary Bipodisan