American · 1940–2024
Kevin Phillips (1940-2024) was an American political analyst, author and commentator. Born in New York City, he studied at Colgate University and Harvard Law School, then worked on Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign as a strategist. His book The Emerging Republican Majority (1969) argued that Republicans could build a lasting national majority by winning white Southern and Sun Belt voters, and it became a core text of the Southern Strategy. Over the following decades he turned critical of his own party. In books such as The Politics of Rich and Poor (1990), Wealth and Democracy (2002), American Dynasty (2004) and American Theocracy (2006), he wrote about the concentration of wealth, the influence of oil, the power of religion in the Republican Party, and the debt that he believed threatened American standing. He also wrote for newspapers and appeared on public radio and television. His shift from architect of conservative strategy to one of its sharpest critics gave his later work unusual weight.