Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist and political commentator on CNN, has died. She was 58.
Her death was announced by CNN. The company said the police found Ms. Stewart’s body outdoors in Northern Virginia early Saturday morning. The authorities believe she had a medical emergency.
Mark Thompson, CNN’s chief executive, described her in an email to staff members as “a political veteran and an Emmy Award-winning journalist who brought an incomparable spark to CNN’s coverage” and who was known not just “for her political savvy, but for her unwavering kindness,” CNN reported.
Ms. Stewart had appeared on the cable news outlet as a conservative commentator since the 2016 presidential race. Before that, Ms. Stewart had worked on several Republican presidential campaigns.
She was the communications director for the 2008 presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, and went on to serve in similar roles for Republican candidates in two following elections, including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Ms. Stewart served as the deputy secretary of state in Arkansas, according to the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, where she was a fellow in 2020. She had also done work for the Republican Party and conservative organizations.
At CNN, Ms. Stewart viewed herself as a faithful promoter of conservatism while the Republican Party reshaped itself under the leadership of former President Donald J. Trump.
“I don’t think everything that he does is great, and I don’t think everything that 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 opinion piece published on CNN last year, Ms. Stewart asked Republican voters to reconsider their unconditional support for Mr. Trump’s 2024 election bid given the various criminal charges he faces.
“This is a campaign about self-preservation, not selfless public service,” Ms. Stewart wrote. “I’m not convinced that’s how you Make America Great Again.”
Ms. Stewart had experience presenting ideas on live television long before she joined CNN.
Before transitioning to politics in 2005 with a job as press secretary in the administration of Mr. Huckabee, Ms. Stewart was a news anchor and reporter for seven years at an NBC television affiliate in Little Rock, Ark., 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, several years ago, I just realized that there might be something different for me to do.”
Ms. Stewart was born on March 11, 1966, in Atlanta, according to CNN. She earned a degree in broadcast news and political science from the University of Georgia, according to Harvard International Review.
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.