Matthew Dowd is an American political consultant who works for ABC News as a political analyst. During the 2004 presidential campaign, he worked as a chief strategist for Bush-Cheney. In 2006, he also worked as a strategist for former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger during his reelection.
Dowd often takes to his Twitter account to air his opinions and views on political, social as well as religious matters, most of which have made him a subject of backlash. His competence as a political strategist was heavily criticized after she woefully predicted that Hilary Clinton would win the 2016 US presidential elections by a greater margin than Obama did in 2012.
“I think she’s got about a 95 chance to win this election, and I think she’s going to have a higher margin than Barack Obama did in 2012. Higher margin. She’s going to win by more than 5 million votes. She’s going to win a higher percentage. And interestingly she’s going to have a more diverse coalition than Barack Obama even did when you take the final vote into consideration. Every piece of data points in that direction.”
Having been a supporter of both the far right and far left, Matthew Dowd now considers himself an Independent.
Matthew Dowd Bio/Wiki
Matthew John Dowd was born on May 29, 1961, in Detroit, Michigan to an auto executive mother and elementary school teacher cum homemaker mother. Dowd is the third of 11 children who were all raised as Catholics. He is of Irish descent.
His interest in politics was sparked by the Watergate Committee hearings during the summer of 1973. He was just 12 years old. Despite being born to Republican parents, Dowd began first began politics as a Democrat. While in college, he worked as a member of the senate and campaign staff of Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s, D-Tex. Additionally, he worked for Texas Lt. Governor Bob Bullock.
As a Republican, Dowd helped win the 2004 presidential election for incumbent President George W. Bush. However, by 2007, Matthew began to disagree with Bush on a number of policies including his involvement with the Iraq War and his handling of Hurricane Katrina.
Dowd joined ABC’s Good Morning America in December 2007 as a political commentator. He also appears on other flagship programs on the network including Nightline and This Week.
Also an entrepreneur, Dowd has founded a number of successful companies including strategy consultancy Vianovo and Public Strategies. He later sold both to pursue other endeavors.
Dowd has written columns for a number of publications. He is the co-author of the NYT best-selling book “Applebee’s America: How Successful Political, Business and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community.” He published a book in 2017 titled; “A New Way: Embracing the Paradox as We Lead and Serve.”
Dowd has taught seminars at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and was a fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. He has served on the boards of non-profit organizations like Seton Family of Hospitals, a Texas-based Catholic nonprofit health system.
Matthew Dowd Married/Divorce, Children
Dowd hasn’t been so lucky with his personal life as with his career. He has suffered two divorces and lost an infant child. His first marriage produced three children. The eldest one named Daniel Dowd served in Iraq as an Army language specialist.
Dowd’s second marriage to a certain Nikki produced twin girls, one of which died at the hospital two months after birth. The death of his infant child seemed to have taken its toll on his marriage as he separated from his wife shortly afterward. His surviving daughter is named Josephine. In total, Matthew Dowd has 4 children.
Dating
Following his second divorce, Dowd began dating his former employer, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ex-wife Maria Shriver in 2013. Maria Shriver had divorced Arnold in 2011 after he confessed to fathering a love child with their maid. Their marriage lasted 25 years.
Arnold was heavily criticized for cheating on his wife. However, the story took a new twist after it was revealed that Maria and Matthew had an affair when Arnold hired Matthew to work as his chief strategist back in 2004, which was before Arnold cheated on her. Page Six has the full list.
During their relationship, Matthew and Maria were spotted in public looking all loved up. However, in 2017, Maria who works as a special anchor and correspondent for NBC News hinted on the network’s Today Show that she is “single,” People reported.
