2026 Speechwriter Fellows

Jack Chambers serves as Deputy Communications Director for U.S. Senator Rick Scott, overseeing all public remarks and press relations for Senator Scott’s robust media operation. A graduate of Elon University, where he wrote for the school newspaper and worked as a writing tutor, Jack has spent nearly half a decade on Capitol Hill “doing words good.” In his free time, Jack likes to cook, watch sports, or be on the water.

Catherine Francois currently serves as Chief Speechwriter to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. She was previously Deputy Speechwriter for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. She has also worked in the House of Representatives as a Legislative Assistant and on the Senate Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee. Before working on Capitol Hill, Catherine was a policy fellow for Robert Rector at The Heritage Foundation and a Confidential Assistant in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Education. Catherine earned a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Benedictine College and an M.A. in Government from Hillsdale College. She lives in Old Town, Alexandria, and enjoys visiting coffee shops and wine bars and making charcuterie boards in her spare time.

Julie Hartman is Chief Speechwriter for the U.S. Department of Education. Previously, she was an on-air host for the Salem Media Group in Los Angeles, hosting her own program, co-hosting a show with Dennis Prager, and serving as the standing substitute host for Salem’s nationally syndicated talk radio shows. She holds a B.A. in History, cum laude, from Harvard College.

Dylan Jeremiah serves as Policy Advisor and Chief Speechwriter for U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt. Before joining Senator Schmitt’s office, he served as Vice President of Government Affairs at Family Policy Alliance. He previously spent nearly five years on Capitol Hill in the office of former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse. He has also held government affairs roles at Metier Strategies and Quorum.

Anthony Jones serves as Chief Speechwriter for U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Prior to this role, he earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Wyoming Catholic College, where he also served as college liaison to the Wyoming Republican Party. He later earned an M.A. in Public Policy and Administration from Baylor University. After completing internships at The Heritage Foundation and The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), Anthony joined TPPF as a full-time policy scholar. Alongside his professional work, he has completed the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s Honors Program and Richard Weaver Fellowship. He also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Emerging Leaders Council at the Steamboat Institute.

Jackson Krug is a young communications professional on Capitol Hill. He has more than two years’ experience as Communications Director for U.S. Congressman Morgan Griffith of Virginia. Before working on Capitol Hill, Jackson worked for numerous conservative political candidates running for local and state office in different parts of Virginia. He is a native of Northern Virginia and is an alumnus of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Joshua Lisec writes books of consequence. He is best known for his literary collaborations with controversial public figures, capturing their authentic voice and conveying the whole story. Joshua is a New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, co-author, and ghostwriter and has written more than 120 nonfiction books on politics, business, and more that have been translated into a dozen languages. He is the author, alongside Jack Posobiec, of the New York Times bestseller Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (And How to Crush Them) and the Newsmax bestseller Bulletproof: The Truth about the Assassination Attempts on Donald Trump, endorsed by President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance and. He has been featured in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Newsweek, The Observer, Business Insider, Forbes, NPR, BBC, TEDx, and TMZ. He is the world’s only certified ghostwriter and certified hypnotist. Lisec lives near Dayton, Ohio, with his three children.

Valerie Muñoz works in Strategic Communications at the Texas General Land Office, where she serves as speechwriter for Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham. She develops talking points, op-eds, and briefings focused on land stewardship, energy security, and preserving Texas’s proud history. Before this, Valerie covered Texas politics as a journalist for Texas Scorecard. Her reporting influenced changes in state law and exposed critical race theory within her university’s journalism program, contributing to significant leadership changes, including those of a university president and journalism director. A South Texas native, Valerie has worked to mobilize Hispanic voters for the Republican Party through social media messaging centered on border security, faith, and family values. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in Journalism Studies and minors in English and Spanish.

Liam Murphy is a Special Assistant at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, where he works on international trade, labor policy, and national security issues and helps draft talking points and remarks for senior agency leadership. Liam holds an M.P.P. in International Relations and National Security from Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, where his capstone examined how the United States can out-compete China by reviving the American System tradition of political economy. He is currently preparing a critical scholarly edition of E. Peshine Smith’s 1853 Manual of Political Economy.

Evan Myers is a speechwriter for Congressman Riley Moore. Prior to this role, he was an advisor to the president at The Heritage Foundation. He is a proud native of Birmingham, Alabama, and now lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, with his wife and children.

Madeline Peltzer is a Trump Administration appointee and speechwriter for Acting Secretary Keith Sonderling at the U.S. Department of Labor. Previously, she served as Deputy Press Secretary for Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, Press Secretary for Michigan Congressman John James, and a ghostwriter for former Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel at the Republican National Committee, where she wrote nearly 100 op-eds throughout the 2022 election cycle. Madeline graduated from Hillsdale College in 2021 where she was a Politics major and Journalism minor. She was born and raised in Arizona and is still a Western girl at heart.

Sean Senn serves as Legislative Correspondent for Congressman Michael Cloud. He handles National Security, Science, and Commerce legislative portfolios in addition to writing letter responses to constituent concerns. A graduate of California Polytechnic State University, Sean earned his B.A. in History and minor in Mandarin in 2024. While studying, he was elected president of his university’s College Republican chapter and worked for a local county supervisor. A California native and Catholic convert, Sean was raised in the liberal milieu but has since broken from it.

Spencer Silbey is Legislative Assistant for Congressman Riley Moore, where he manages a wide-ranging legislative portfolio and supports the congressman’s work on the House Appropriations Committee. He considers it a privilege to serve in an office where faith and public service are inseparable. Previously, Spencer worked as a management consultant at West Monroe, supporting large-scale infrastructure modernization and digital transformation projects. He also completed fellowships with American Moment and The Heritage Foundation. He graduated summa cum laude from Miami University with a B.S. in Marketing and a minor in International Relations.

Sophia Slacik is Chief Speechwriter for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. She previously served as a speechwriter for Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. Before coming to Capitol Hill, Sophia wrote and reported for Fox News Digital in New York and Washington, D.C., covering the 2022 midterm elections. A lifelong Californian, she holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

William Thompson VI serves as Special Assistant to the White House Liaison in the Office of the Secretary of War, having previously served as a speechwriter to the Secretary. Prior to joining the Trump Administration, he completed internships at The Heritage Foundation and The Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life. In 2025, William graduated summa cum laude from Pepperdine University with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Great Books. During his time at Pepperdine, he served as President of the College Republicans and was selected as an Intercollegiate Studies Institute Honors Scholar.

Nathaniel Urban is Development Associate at the National Association of Scholars (NAS), where he communicates with donors regularly about the work NAS is doing to reform American higher education. He published a case study for NAS’s report, Waste Land: The Education Department’s Profligacy, Mediocrity, and Radicalism, a comprehensive audit of the U.S. Department of Education, and continues to publish pieces for Minding the Campus and The Imaginative Conservative. Nathaniel is a graduate of the Ashbrook Scholar Program at Ashland University.

James Winner currently works as a Communications Advisor for Congressman Eric Burlison, specializing in strategic messaging, long-form writing, and digital communications. A graduate of the University of Virginia with a degree in Foreign Affairs, he has ghostwritten for prominent conservative leaders, translating policy and conservative philosophy into compelling public-facing opinion pieces. Outside of politics, James is an avid musician and enjoys performing live shows throughout the DMV with close friends.