Robert Shrum

Robert Shrum is the Director of the Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at USC Dornsife. A legendary political strategist, he was once described as “the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party,” by The Atlantic Monthly. After a storied career working for clients like Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Senator Barbara Mikulski, and the presidential campaigns of Vice President Al Gore and Senator John Kerry, Shrum was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) in 2015. As a journalist, Shrum’s work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Time, Newsweek, and The Huffington Post. Now he enjoys instructing the next generation of leaders at USC, with a prior academic career that includes teaching at New York University, time as a Silliman Fellow at Yale, and serving as a Kennedy Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard. Shrum is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Harvard Law School.