The Truth About Kellyanne Conway's Husband, George Conway

Soon-to-be former White House advisor Kellyanne Conway might be one of the most visible — and the most loyal — faces within the Trump Administration, but her husband George has been one of its most vocal critics. George Conway is so passionate that he and a group of other GOP Trump critics got together in late 2019 to form the super PAC "The Lincoln Project." The group's launch was marked by an op-ed in December in The New York Times which dedicated itself to defeating Donald Trump and Trumpism at the polls. 

"We do not undertake this task lightly, nor from ideological preference. We have been, and remain, broadly conservative (or classically liberal) in our politics and outlooks. Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain, but our shared fidelity to the Constitution dictates a common effort," the group said at the time.

He may not be popular among his wife's friends and colleagues, but George Conway is not without fans who say he is funny, generous, and brilliant (via The Washington Post). The lawyer grew up outside of Boston, his mother was an organic chemist from the Philippines, and his father worked for Raytheon, a defense contractor. Conway went to Harvard, and then to Yale Law School, where Above the Law says he was active in the Federalist Society — a group of conservative voices who believe that that "the state exists to preserve freedom." 

By his mid-30s, Conway had made partner at the firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, but he wanted more; so much more that The Washington Post says he was a critical presence in the effort against then-president Bill Clinton, by offering legal aid to his accusers including Paula Jones, and sending details to the Drudge Report. Conway was so entrenched he even helped Linda Tripp set up Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s. Conway also asked for his involvement to be secret, since his firm was heavily Democratic.

Conway first crossed paths with Donald Trump as a tenant living in Trump World Tower with his wife Kellyanne in 2006, when the condo board had threatened to remove Trump's name from the World Tower facade. After Conway's victory (Trump's name stayed up), the then-real estate magnate offered to put Conway on the condo board. Conway refused, Kellyanne picked up the job instead. 10 years later, Trump hired Kellyanne as a campaign adviser and by 2016 she was his campaign manager (via The Washingtonian).

Conway didn't always feel the same animosity towards his wife's soon-to-be former boss that he feels today. On election night 2016, when the networks called a Trump victory he actually celebrated, telling anyone who would listen, "She did it! She did it! She made history" (via The Washington Post). And for a time, Conway's name was floated for the post of Solicitor General, and then for a possible senior post within the Justice Department as head of its civil division (via Above the Law). When he declined, Conway wrote, "Kellyanne and I continue to support you and your Administration, and I look forward to doing so in whatever way I can from outside the government."

But it wouldn't last. Just two years later, in 2018, Conway wrote his first critique of Trump in support of special counsel Robert Muller's investigation, into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential elections. In the piece which was published by Lawfare, Conway wrote: "... It isn't very surprising to see the president tweet a meritless legal position, because, as a non-lawyer, he wouldn't know the difference between a good one and a bad one. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with lawyers making inventive and novel arguments on behalf of their clients, or on behalf of causes or people they support, if the arguments are well-grounded in law and fact, even if the arguments ultimately turn out to be wrong."

All "good" things must come to an end, though. According to CNN, on August 23, both Kellyanne and George announced they would be stepping down from their respective roles with the Trump Administration and The Lincoln Project to focus on family.