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Trump Spokeswoman Katrina Pierson: No, I Did Not Vote for Obama in 2008

Katrina Pierson / CNN Screenshot
May 6, 2016

Did Donald Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson vote for Barack Obama in 2008? It's a widely reported claim about Pierson, but she said Friday on CNN that it was untrue, and she told the Washington Free Beacon that she has never voted for a Democrat in her life.

RedState.com editor Ben Howe, a fierce critic of Trump, brought up the charge during his appearance alongside her on New Day and she quickly rebuffed it.

"Donald Trump is less conservative than Romney, who she just mentioned," Howe said. "Less conservative than McCain, who—If I'm not mistaken, I think Katrina actually voted for Obama in 2008."

"Yes, you're mistaken," Pierson said.

"Oh, well, that's what I was told," Howe replied awkwardly.

Via email, Pierson reiterated she did not pull the lever for Obama that year.

 "No," she told the Washington Free Beacon. "I've never even voted for a Democrat. I supported Fred Thompson in 08, then voted for McCain. I supported Newt Gingrich in 12, and voted for Romney."

Pierson added she couldn't vote for Thompson in the 2008 Texas primary, because he dropped out in January of that year after a disappointing showing in South Carolina.

That Pierson committed ideological apostasy and voted Obama is a consistent conservative criticism of the Trump spokeswoman, reported at PoliticoThe Daily Beast, McClatchy and National Review, among other sites. The Daily Caller says Pierson is "open about the fact that she voted for Barack Obama in 2008."

Far-left website Alternet lists her vote as one of the "12 Craziest Things" about her, but the quote used in the article as proof was the remark, "It was pretty awesome for our country that Barack Obama was a black guy running for that office."

That's pulled from an interview Pierson did in 2011 with TexasGOPVote.com, part of a series of interviews with Tea Party leaders in North Texas. The full quote makes it seem like she did not vote for him:

Debbie Georgatos: I take it you were not happy with the outcome of the 2008 elections?

Katrina Pierson: No. It was pretty awesome for our country that Barack Obama was a black guy running for that office, but everything that he stood for was in complete opposition to what I felt. And that is when I was able to define my political ideology, which I’d always had but just didn’t realize it.

I was shocked when he won the election. And that’s what really drove me to get involved. That this man could get elected, and become President, and implement the types of things that he has done, was very scary to me. So I had to get involved, to figure out how I could be part of the solution.

Regarding that interview, Pierson told the Free Beacon that "lazy reporters didn't read this article thoroughly."

"I've asked for corrections that went ignored," she said.

National Review opens a profile of Pierson by calling her a "disappointed Obama voter" in April 2009 when "she made her first foray into politics: a seven-minute speech at the Dallas Tea Party Tax Day Rally." Yet in that speech, she makes no mention of voting for Obama or even mentions Obama at all.

She does say she wished Texas would secede from the U.S., however.

Pierson has, however, proven herself to be malleable on her conservative ideals in her services of Trump, as shown in the scathing National Review profile that lists her inconsistencies and controversial statements.

As an example, she previously supported Ted Cruz in his successful run for the U.S. Senate in Texas in 2012, and she told Fox News host Megyn Kelly as late as 2015 that Cruz was a "walking testament to immigrants who have fled their countries to seek freedom and achieved the American dream."

As Trump's spokeswoman, she derided Cruz, who was born in Canada, by suggesting many voters are "uncomfortable" voting for someone born outside the United States. In March 2015, three months before Trump announced his candidacy, she wrote in a Facebook post that Cruz is a "natural citizen by birth" and fully eligible for the presidency.