Alice Stewart, a CNN Political Commentator, Is Dead at 58

Published May 18, 2024Updated May 22, 2024

Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist who became a political commentator on CNN, has died. She was 58.

Her death was announced by CNN, which said the police found Ms. Stewart's body outdoors in Northern Virginia early Saturday morning. The authorities said they believed that she had a medical emergency but did not provide a cause.

Mark Thompson, CNN's chief executive, described Ms. Stewart in an email to staff members as "a political veteran and an Emmy Award-winning journalist who brought an incomparable spark to CNN's coverage."

Ms. Stewart had appeared on the cable news outlet as a conservative commentator since the 2016 presidential race. Before then, she worked on several Republican presidential campaigns.

She was the communications director for the 2008 presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, and went on to serve in similar roles for Republican candidates in two more elections, including those of Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz.

Ms. Stewart had been the deputy secretary of state in Arkansas and was a fellow in 2020 at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. She had also done work for the Republican Party and conservative organizations.

At CNN, Ms. Stewart viewed herself as a faithful promoter of conservatism while the Republican Party reshaped itself under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump.

"I don't think everything that he does is great, and I don't think everything that he does is bad," Ms. Stewart said of Mr. Trump in a 2020 interview with Harvard Political Review. "My position at CNN is to be a conservative voice yet an independent thinker."

In an opinion piece published on CNN last year, Ms. Stewart asked Republican voters to reconsider their unconditional support for Mr. Trump's 2024 election bid given the various criminal charges he faced.

"This is a campaign about self-preservation, not selfless public service," she wrote. "I'm not convinced that's how you Make America Great Again."

Before transitioning to politics in 2005 with a job as press secretary in Mr. Huckabee's administration, Ms. Stewart was a news anchor and reporter for seven years at the NBC television affiliate in Little Rock, Ark.

"I loved covering politics. I loved courts. I loved breaking news," she said in a 2020 interview with Harvard International Review. "But, several years ago, I just realized that there might be something different for me to do."

Alice Fraker was born on March 11, 1966, in Atlanta. Her father, Gerald, was a furniture salesman, and her mother, Carolyn Bestedt, was a nurse. She earned a degree in broadcast news and political science from the University of Georgia.

She moved from Little Rock to Virginia after being hired by CNN in July 2016, shortly before Mr. Trump officially became the Republican nominee for president.

Ms. Stewart last appeared on CNN on May 17 on "The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer."

She had a brother, Eric, and two sisters, Andrea Schwind and Heather Thompson. Information on survivors was not immediately available.