Ed Rollins

Edward Rollins (born March 19, 1943) is an American political consultant and advisor who has worked on several high-profile Republican political campaigns in the United States.

Graduating from high school in 1961, he tried to enlist in the Marines, but failed the physical.

Shortly thereafter, Rollins spent most of a year in the hospital dealing with his back problems.

Once healthy, in 1962, he began undergraduate studies at Vallejo Junior College, eventually earned his associate degree, and transferred to San Jose State University in 1965.

Unable to pass the physical exam required for a sports scholarship because of his continuing back problems, after one semester Rollins transferred to California State University, Chico, where he was hired as boxing coach.

Rollins interned in Sacramento for California's Democratic leader, Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, in 1967.

There he earned his BA in political science with a second major in physical education in 1968.

Unruh introduced Rollins to Senator Robert F. Kennedy; in early 1968 he worked for Kennedy as a campus coordinator, then later for his primary campaign in Northern California.

After the 1968 election and the GOP gaining a majority in the California Assembly, he was hired by Republican Assemblyman Ray E. Johnson as his chief of staff, despite his prior service under the Democrats.

In 1972, Rollins worked for the California campaign to re-elect President Richard Nixon.

This gave Rollins his first close contact with Governor Ronald Reagan, who chaired Nixon's California campaign, and Lyn Nofziger, who ran the West Coast Nixon political operation.

Rollins moved to Washington in 1973, to serve as principal assistant to Monagan overseeing congressional relations at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

He continued as deputy assistant secretary for congressional affairs through the end of the Ford administration.

Rollins was personally selected for the job by White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, who had served as Gerald Ford's manager in 1976.

Rollins's deputy and political director was Lee Atwater.

The Reagan-Bush ticket ultimately won 49 of the 50 states.

From 1977 to 1979, he served as dean of the faculty and deputy superintendent at the National Fire Academy in Washington.

During that time, he met and married Kitty Nellor Burnes.

In early 1979, Rollins returned to Sacramento with his wife Kitty Nellor and became chief of staff for the Assembly Republican Caucus.

During this period, he was offered but ultimately declined the position of chief of staff to former President Nixon.

After the landslide GOP victory in November 1980, Rollins was hired to serve as deputy assistant to the president for political affairs under Nofziger.

When Nofziger resigned in November 1981, Rollins was appointed as assistant to the president for political affairs and director of the Office of Political Affairs.

A week before the 1982 election, on October 25, Rollins suffered two strokes, the result of a deteriorating neck artery that had been injured during his final boxing match in 1967.

He recovered and returned to his White House job in December 1982, holding the position until resigning in October 1983 to lead Reagan's re-election campaign.

In 1983 and 1984, Rollins was national campaign director for the successful Reagan-Bush 1984 campaign.

He is currently Chief Political Strategist at the pro-Ron DeSantis PAC Ready for Ron.

Rollins previously served as chairman of the pro–Donald Trump Great America PAC.

Rollins was born in Boston, Massachusetts, into an Irish Catholic blue-collar household.

At the time, his father was stationed with the U.S. Army in the Aleutian Islands.

After the war, his parents returned with him to Vallejo, California, where his father worked as an electrician at the city's Mare Island Navy Yard, primarily building submarines.

Rollins grew up in the Federal Terrace housing project, attending St. Vincent Ferrer Grammar and High School.

For a year, at age 14, he attended St. Joseph's College, a junior seminary in Mountain View, before returning to Vallejo.

He competed as a boxer from ages 13 to 23, winning several West Coast amateur titles.

Rollins recalls his record as 164 victories and just 2 defeats.

Rollins worked as national campaign director to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.

In the second term, he rejoined the Reagan Administration for several months in 1985 as Assistant to the President for Political and Governmental Affairs.

After the election, Rollins agreed in January 1985 to return to the White House Office of Political Affairs, under new Chief of Staff Donald Regan.

However, Rollins grew disenchanted after Regan passed him over for the post of Secretary of Labor following the resignation of Raymond Donovan, and with the abrasive chief's staff and style.

On October 1, 1985, Rollins joined the Sacramento-based political consulting firm of Russo & Watts.

In the 1988 Republican presidential primaries, Rollins managed the campaign of former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.