Douglas Schoen

Education

Schoen attended Horace Mann School in New York City. While still a high school student, he canvassed the Upper West Side for Dick Morris. He graduated from Harvard College (magna cum laude) and Harvard Law School. Schoen went to high school with Mark Penn and then worked together with him on The Harvard Crimson.

Career

Schoen currently serves on the Advisory Council of Represent.Us, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization.

Consulting work

While still at Harvard, Schoen first worked as an independent political consultant for Louis Gigante, who ran for New York City Council in 1973.

In 1977, he founded the political consulting firm Penn, Schoen & Berland with political strategists Mark Penn. Michael Berland joined the firm in 1987. Schoen worked for the political campaigns of politicians including Jay Rockefeller, Richard Shelby and Evan Bayh. Following the 1994 United States elections, President Bill Clinton hired Dick Morris, who brought on Schoen and Penn. Schoen worked on the 1996 campaign as well in survey analysis. Schoen also began doing corporate work beginning in the 1980s.

He also did work for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential nomination campaign and later became associated with the People United Means Action movement of disaffected Clinton supporters who refused to support Barack Obama. Schoen was a consultant for Jeff Greene in the 2010 Florida Senate election.

The firm was sold to WPP plc in 2001. Schoen left the firm later to work for news media.

In 2010, Schoen hosted a fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate John Gomez.

Media

Schoen became a political analyst for Fox News and a columnist for Newsmax. In 2010, he authored a book on the Tea Party movement with Scott Rasmussen.

Views

Schoen has identified as a member of the Democratic party, but has frequently criticized the party and taken positions on various political topics at odds with the party's views. Schoen's critics have called his identification as a Democrat "phony" and calculated to help his Fox news career. Steve Benen called Schoen the quintessential "Fox News democrat" and said he is "actively hostile towards [Democrats] and the party’s agenda."

Schoen says that lower taxes would be a successful Democratic strategy, opposed President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, argued that the Democratic Party should reject the Occupy Wall Street protests, and said that President Obama not run for reelection in 2012.

He has stated that the President has divided the country along partisan lines, and said that the Affordable Care Act had been a "disaster" for the Democratic Party.

Schoen has been critical of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he wrote, "President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement—and it may cost them the 2012 election." He believes that the protesters represent "an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence," and that their common bond is "a deep commitment to left-wing policies." Schoen believes that the Democratic Party should not appeal to voters who support taxing oil companies and the rich, but rather to voters in the middle who want lower taxes. On October 30, 2016, Schoen pulled his support of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, citing his concern of a "constitutional crisis" due to Secretary Clinton's email scandal if elected.

Works