Mitt Romney announced Monday that he had tapped a top adviser, Beth Myers, to head his search for a running mate. In Myers, Romney has picked his top confidante — someone who has worked with the former governor for a decade and is very familiar with his leadership style, according to his campaign staff.
Myers, who worked as a lawyer before entering politics, met Romney in the 1990s and volunteered on his gubernatorial campaign in 2002. After the campaign, Myers served as Romney’s chief of staff and managed his 2008 presidential bid. In Romney’s Boston campaign headquarters, Myers has the office right next to his.
The Shawmut Group, the public affairs consulting firm Myers helped found, has more:
Beth Myers has a long history of involvement in public issues and campaigns. Most recently, she was Campaign Manager for Mitt Romney’s presidential race and before that served as his Chief of Staff through all four years of the Romney governorship. She previously worked as a litigation associate at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP in Dallas, Texas. Starting on the 1980 Reagan campaign, Myers has worked for a slew of candidates. Working for Market Opinion Research, she developed and implemented GOTV campaigns in California, Texas, Massachusetts, Louisiana and Missouri. She was Deputy Campaign Manager for Ray Shamie’s 1984 US Senate race in Massachusetts and on the 1986 Bill Clements for Governor campaign in Texas. She also spent a stint as Chief of Staff to Massachusetts State Treasurer Joe Malone, and worked on Malone’s 1998 campaign for governor. Myers graduated from Tufts University and received a juris doctorate from Southern Methodist University School of Law. She lives with her husband, Mark, and two children in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Former Romney adviser Gentry Collins, who worked on Romney’s 2008 campaign in Iowa, spoke highly of the Myers pick in an email to TPM:
Beth Myers, who is leading the process, is very talented. She knows Romney exceptionally well and understands both what he expects and what he needs. I don’t know many people who have Romney’s confidence like Beth does. She’ll be a tremendous asset for Romney during this search.
Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, another co-founder of the Shawmut Group, sounded a similar note on Myers to CBS News:
She knows Mitt’s personal management style better than anyone, she knows how he operates, that he welcomes debate and discussion, that he works best with data — she has a good understanding of what Mitt looks for when it comes to decision making.
