Kate Obenshain, Vice President

A regular guest on Fox News and a popular campus speaker, Kate Obenshain is an articulate, fearless defender of conservative principles. She inspires audiences with her passionate, experienced insights, never hesitating to speak her mind, even when it contradicts the political establishment—as it often does.

Kate champions her conservative convictions as vice president of Young America’s Foundation, the principal youth outreach organization of the Conservative Movement. Young America’s Foundation inspires emerging young leaders at the Reagan Ranch, Reagan Ranch Center, and student campuses across the country.

Encouraging young people to become philosophically knowledgeable and active in public policy issues is a driving passion for Kate. In 2003, she founded and is chairman of a public policy leadership training program for women in Virginia.

She has been speaking on college campuses for 18 years, enlightening and entertaining students on topics on a wide variety of issues including economic policy, national security, education, life, political correctness on campus, and the changing role of women in public policy. She also speaks regularly at Tea Party rallies and special events all across the country.

Kate garnered national attention as chairman of the Virginia GOP from 2003 to 2006, when she led the charge against tax increases and the expanding role of government. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified her as a rising star.

She served as Virginia Senator George Allen's chief of staff and as his chief education and health policy advisor while he was governor. From 1995 to 2000, she advanced budgetary reform and programmatic accountability as an appointee of Governors Allen and Gilmore on the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Along with Ann Coulter, Laura Schlessinger, Phyllis Schlafly and Jeane Kirkpatrick, Kate's work is featured in the book, Great American Conservative Women. Of this book, Rush Limbaugh, said, “It's past due that someone put together a collection of ideas and philosophies from conservative women in print.” She has been featured in five of the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute’s annual calendars and currently serves on their board.

Kate distinguished herself early as a student leader at the University of Virginia, where she was editor of the campus conservative newspaper, the Virginia Advocate. She organized one of the year’s best-attended campus events—a state-wide rally in support of America’s troops—that refuted vocal, anti-war leftists purporting to represent all students.

Kate’s leadership has helped establish Young America’s Foundation as the primary resource for young conservatives. She oversaw the Foundation’s operations as a member of the Board of Directors during the ambitious renovation and re-opening of the Reagan Ranch Center. Early in her career, she developed the largest conservative lecture program in the nation. That Young America’s Foundation lecture program continues to introduce thousands of young people to conservative ideas every year.

Kate has appeared on numerous cable news shows, including, Hannity, The O’Reilly Factor, Bulls and Bears, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Hard Ball and Larry Kudlow’s The Call. Her writings have been featured in, among others, The Washington Times, Human Events, and The Richmond Times Dispatch.

Kate is a Virginia native. She lives in Winchester, Virginia with her four children. She is a co-founder of James 1:27 Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing assistance to widows and orphans in times of crisis.