Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist and political commentator on CNN, has died. She was 58.
Her death was announced by CNN. The company said police found Ms. Stewart's body outside in Northern Virginia early Saturday morning. Authorities believe she had a medical emergency.
Mark Thompson, CNN's CEO, described her in an email to staffers as “a political veteran and Emmy Award-winning journalist who brought an incomparable spark to CNN's reporting” and who was known not only “for her political knowledge, but also for her unwavering kindness,” CNN reported.
Ms. Stewart had appeared on the cable news channel as a conservative commentator since the 2016 presidential race. Previously, Ms. Stewart had worked on several Republican presidential campaigns.
She served as communications director for the 2008 presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, and then served in similar roles for Republican candidates in two subsequent elections, including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz. according to her LinkedIn profile.
Ms. Stewart served as deputy secretary of state in Arkansas. according to the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politicswhere she was a fellow in 2020. She had also done work for the Republican Party and conservative organizations.
At CNN, Ms. Stewart considered herself a staunch promoter of conservatism as the Republican Party reformed itself under the leadership of former President Donald J. Trump.
“I don't think anything he does is great, and I don't think anything he does is bad,” Ms. Stewart said of Mr. Trump in a 2020 interview with Harvard Political Review. “My position at CNN is to be a conservative voice yet an independent thinker.”
In an op-ed published on CNN last year, Ms. Stewart asked Republican voters to reconsider their unconditional support for Trump's 2024 election bid given the several criminal charges he faces.
“This is a campaign about self-preservation, not about selfless public service.” Mrs. Stewart wrote. “I'm not convinced you can make America great again like that.”
Ms. Stewart had experience presenting ideas on live television long before joining CNN.
Before he switched to politics in 2005 with a job as press secretary in Mr. Huckabee's administrationMs. Stewart was a news anchor and reporter at an NBC television affiliate in Little Rock, Ark., for seven years, according to LinkedIn.
“I loved covering politics. I loved courts. I loved breaking news,” Ms. Stewart said in a 2020 interview with Harvard International Review. “But a few years ago I realized there might be something else for me to do.”
According to CNN, Ms. Stewart was born in Atlanta on March 11, 1966. According to Harvard International Review, she earned a degree in broadcast news and political science from the University of Georgia.
Ms. Stewart last appeared on CNN on Friday on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” CNN said.
A list of survivors was not immediately available.