What’ll Sarah Huckabee Sanders do next? No idea. But here’s what the other living people who’ve been White House press secretary in the last 30 years are up to—ranked, by our entirely subjective lights, from most to least impressive.
1. George Stephanopoulos (Clinton, 1993)
Anchor, GMA and This Week
2. Jay Carney (Obama, 2011–14)
Senior VP, global corporate affairs, Amazon
3. Dana Perino (G.W. Bush, 2007–09)
Anchor, Fox News
4. Robert Gibbs (Obama, 2009–11)
Chief communications officer, McDonald’s
5. Jake Siewert (Clinton, 2000–01)
Global head of corporate communications, Goldman Sachs
6. Josh Earnest (Obama, 2014–17)
Chief communications officer and senior VP, United
7. Ari Fleischer (G.W. Bush, 2001–03)
President, Ari Fleischer Communications, which has repped the NFL and Pfizer
8. Dee Dee Myers (Clinton, 1993–94)
Executive VP, worldwide corporate communications/public affairs, Warner Bros.
9. Joe Lockhart (Clinton, 1998–2000)
CNN political analyst and Edelman PR vice chair
10. Marlin Fitzwater (Reagan and G.H.W. Bush, 1987–93)
Founder of Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University
11. Mike McCurry (Clinton, 1995–98)
Professor of public theology at Wesley Theological Seminary
12. Scott McClellan (G.W. Bush, 2003–06)
VP for university affairs, Seattle University
13. Sean Spicer (Trump, 2017)
Special correspondent at Extra
This article appears in the August 2019 issue of Washingtonian.
Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Northeast DC.
