Kristen Soltis is currently the Director of Policy Research at The Winston Group, a DC based polling and strategic consulting firm where she has worked since 2005. She was featured as a “Mover and Shaker” in Campaigns & Elections Magazine in June 2010.
She has appeared on television, radio, and online programs including MSNBC’s “Jansing & Co.”, CNN International’s “Political Mann,” RT’s “The Alyona Show,” Ireland’s RTE, BBC Radio 4, XM/Sirius’ “The Capital Hill Blues” and KCRW’s “To The Point with Warren Olney.” She has also been a panelist at the American Enterprise Institute.
She is a regular contributor to Pollster.com and POLITICO’s Arena. Her analysis and commentary has appeared in POLITICO, National Review’s “The Corner,” The Daily, The New York Times’ “Room For Debate,” The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post, and The Orlando Sentinel.
She is the co-host of Bloggingheads.tv’s “The Week In Blog,” of PJTV’s “Washington Roundtable,” and of Variety’s “Wilshire and Washington.”
She earned her Master’s in Government from Johns Hopkins University where she graduated summa cum laude with an award for Best Thesis for her work on young voters and the long-term viability of the Republican Party. Her academic work on campaign finance has been published in the journal American Politics Research. She has been an invited speaker at George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University and Loyola University in Baltimore. She has also led a training session on polling for The Leadership Institute.
Kristen’s political experience also includes an internship with the NRCC and completion of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University.
(And then there’s the fun stuff.)
Kristen was born and raised in Orlando, FL and is a proud Florida Gator graduate with an affinity for warm weather, theme parks, and meteorology. (During summers in high school, she was the actress that drove the tram on the King Kong ride at Universal Studios.) Politics was always an interest, and in high school she spent her days on the debate team, eventually winning the national Congress Tournament of Champions.
In 2002 she was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to his Florida Commemorative Quarter Committee and helped decide what design would appear on the Sunshine State’s edition of the Mint’s 50 States collection. She was also elected Governor of Florida Girls State and attended Girls Nation.
From 2007 to 2009, Kristen lived out her dream of being a rockstar as the lead singer of DC’s rock/pop band “The Frustrations.”
She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the America’s Future Foundation and is vice chair of Strategic Planning for the Junior League of Washington.
