| Post: | White House Political Director |
| Insignia: | US-WhiteHouse-Logo.svg |
| Incumbent: | Emmy Ruiz |
| Incumbentsince: | January 20, 2021 |
| Department: | Executive Office of the President White House Office |
| Appointer: | President of the United States |
| Formation: | 1978 (informally) 1981 (formally) |
| First: | Tim Kraft (informally) Lyn Nofziger (formally) |
The White House Political Director, formally the Director of the Office of Political Affairs (OPA) or Director of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach (OPSO), is a political appointee of the President of the United States and a senior member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
The White House Office of Political Affairs was first formally established in 1981 during under Ronald Reagan, while Jimmy Carter was the first to designate a political director in 1978.[1] [2] [3] [4]
Subsequent administrations have rebranded the office. During his second term, President Obama renamed the office as the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, though the roles and responsibilities of the office and its director remained.[5]
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During the second term of the Reagan administration, there was a director of political and intergovernmental affairs who sat above the political director and intergovernmental affairs director.
Paulo Costanzo portrays Lyor Boone, the fictional White House Political Director, in Designated Survivor, a political thriller television series.