CLEVELAND — CNN hired an Arkansan this week as a political commentator during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Alice Stewart, a former KARK-TV weekend anchor and longtime aide to former Gov. Mike Huckabee, joined the Atlanta-based news network in time for the second day of the Republican National Convention.
“I’ll be on CNN all times of the day, mainly weighing in on the presidential cycle,” she said in an interview near the entrance of a CNN set.
She made her first appearance Tuesday morning, hours before delegates handed Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination.
Stewart, who has lived in Little Rock for 17 years, worked for Huckabee’s 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns, but resigned in December, at a time when fundraising had dried up and senior staff members were going without pay. She resurfaced in January as a spokesman and senior adviser to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the eventual Iowa caucus winner and Trump’s closest competitor.
In 2012, she worked for Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Sitting beside Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein on a couch decorated with CNN-branded pillows, the University of Georgia graduate said she is thrilled to have the cable news gig.
“I’ve been blessed to work for some great people throughout the years in Arkansas and Washington, D.C., and to be able to bring it all together, to work in a position like this in this capacity at this time, is beyond my wildest dreams,” she said.
Stewart has sold her Little Rock home and is moving to Old Town Alexandria in Virginia early next month.
After all this time in the Natural State, “it’s tough to leave,” she said. “But this is a dream I’ve always had and God said, ‘If you’re going to do it, you have to do it now.’”
While fielding questions Tuesday afternoon, Stewart greeted CNN colleagues, exchanging hugs with friends and a high-five with fellow CNN political commentator Ben Ferguson.
“I’m thrilled,” Ferguson said, after learning that Stewart had been hired. “It’s long overdue, well deserved and it’s really fun to have her at CNN now.”
As a political analyst, Stewart brings intelligence and “actual campaign knowledge. I mean, she’s been in the dogfight of many presidential campaigns and you can’t fake that,” he said. “A lot of people on TV wish they could say that they know what she knows.”
Stewart’s friends from Arkansas are also glad that she’ll be a daily television presence.
“They need more right-leaning analysts on CNN,” said David Elswick, host of The David Elswick Show on KHTE-FM in Little Rock. “Alice is a good friend and she’s a … smart lady. Real smart.”
While Stewart has been a prominent Republican spin doctor in recent years, she said her role at CNN will be to offer broader insight and analysis.
“Obviously, I don’t want Hillary Clinton to win and I’m going to praise Donald Trump when he does the right things and when he’s on message, but at the same time, as a commentator, it’s my role to call a spade a spade whenever need be,” she said.
As she prepared to get back to work Tuesday afternoon, Stewart wasn’t repeating the GOP talking points about plagiarism in a speech by their nominee’s wife.
While praising Melania Trump’s courage, beauty and “phenomenal performance,” Stewart also excoriated the campaign’s speechwriters.
“It is beyond the realm of possibility for this to have been an accident. … You’ve seen the clips and you’ve seen the transcripts. It was clearly lifted and intentionally put in there,” Stewart said. “I think they should find who was responsible, and I think someone should be terminated.”