Meet the art historian turned RedState blogger who’s now one of Ted Cruz’s top advisers on foreign policy
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has made some of the most contentious foreign-policy statements of this election cycle.
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Behind those policies and more is a recently released list of foreign-policy advisers working on his campaign.
One name near the top was that of an art historian who took an unconventional path to a career in politics.
Victoria Coates has a Ph.D. in art history and previously worked at the Cleveland Museum of Art as a consulting curator. She recently wrote a book, “David’s Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art,” about famous art that commemorates free societies.
But she always had an interest in politics — she studied the subject in college along with art history — and Coates started blogging for RedState after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Eventually, her work got noticed by the staff of former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Keith Urbahn, a former chief of staff for Rumsfeld, remembers that while Coates was blogging for RedState, she wrote a post about journalist Bob Woodward’s book on some of George W. Bush’s wartime strategy, “State of Denial.”
“I thought it was a compelling piece and we sent it up” to Rumsfeld’s speech writer, Urbahn told Business Insider.
Rumsfeld liked what he saw.
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Profile of the brilliant @victoriacoates Meet the art historian who's now a top Ted Cruz adviser https://t.co/ceUujWttUH @bi_politics
— Nile Gardiner (@NileGardiner) April 10, 2016
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