Romney's 2012 campaign manager to speak Sept. 15 at SJU

Matt Rhoades, who managed the Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15, at the Founders Room, Quadrangle Building 170, Saint John's University.

Rhoades will speak on, "How social media is transforming campaigns." The event is free and open to the public.

His visit is sponsored by the Mark Kennedy Frontiers of Freedom Lecture Series of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at Saint John's University. It is cosponsored by the College Republicans and Students Fostering Conservative Thought at CSB and SJU.

A political consultant and strategist, Rhoades has been involved in the last four presidential elections.

In 2000, he worked as a research analyst for the Republican National Committee assisting in the Florida recount. During the recount, he accused one Democratic vote counter of ingesting a hanging chad on a ballot, according to the New York Times newspaper.

Rhoades was the director of opposition research for the campaign to re-elect President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in 2004. He then became director of communications for Romney's failed 2008 presidential bid.

Along with several prominent Republican leaders, Rhoades cofounded the America Rising PAC in 2013. America Rising PAC was set up to serve as an organization on the right for which the sole purpose is to "expose the truth about Democrats through video tracking, research and communications," according to its website.

Rhoades is a 1997 graduate of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and received his master's in 1999 from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University.

Kennedy, a 1979 graduate of SJU, currently leads George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. He served in Congress representing Minnesota's 2nd and 6th Congressional Districts from 2001-07.

"I believe strongly that a vibrant and healthy liberal arts college promotes honest intellectual discourse ... and that certainly involves the conservative perspective," Kennedy said.