Steve Schmidt's public break from the GOP and quiet departure from his corporate PR gig earlier this summer are fueling speculation in Republican circles that that he’ll advise a presidential bid by his longtime client, former Starbucks chief Howard Schultz, or another Democratic candidate in 2020.

Questions about Schmidt’s future began to swirl in June when he announced his departure from the GOP in a series of tweets embracing the Democratic Party. It was a rare act of defiance in a party that has mostly fallen in line behind President Donald Trump — one that has many Republicans talking about what exactly Schmidt plans to do next.


Working for a Schultz campaign would complete Schmidt’s decade-long process of estrangement from the Republican Party after spending much of his career at its highest levels.

For now, he remains mum on his future plans and his conversations with Schultz.

“I don’t have any plans to be on a political campaign, and I would never jump into one too lightly,” Schmidt said in an interview. “Howard Schultz is a hell of a man, a hell of a leader. I'm proud to call him a friend, but there's no campaign, and I don’t have anything to tell you."

The speculation began in earnest in July, when Schmidt, who served as chief strategist to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, abruptly stepped down as vice chairman of public affairs at the PR firm Edelman after eight years on the job.

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In a statement to the firm's management obtained at the time by POLITICO, Schmidt, who is currently working on a book, said "a season of fighting lies ahead.” But he did not specify his plans other than to say, “I am excited by the opportunity to write, think and comment on the events of the day, and to try and defend ideals and ideas that are worthy of defending and have been purchased at great cost.”

Schmidt’s moves coincided with Shultz's announcement of his retirement from Starbucks, effective June 26. Schultz’s retirement has fanned speculation that he will run for president as a Democrat in 2020, a prospect with which he has openly toyed as he mulls his post-Starbucks future.

Starbucks has been an Edelman client for 20 years, during which time the coffee chain has cultivated a progressive image and made itself a leader in corporate social responsibility. Schmidt worked closely with Schultz while at the firm, and the two remain friends. Schultz is also a client of Schmidt’s personal consulting practice.

"Howard has worked with Steve for several years,” said Wanda Herndon, a spokeswoman for Schultz, in response to questions about a potential 2020 collaboration. “He respects him and values his insights."

One person who recently asked Schmidt about his conversations with Schultz said that Schmidt denied the two are mulling a presidential campaign. "He says he's not advising for political purposes,” according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to relay the contents of a private conversation.

Few of Schmidt’s peers believe that. The moves, and speculation about Schmidt’s future, have not escaped the notice of Republican operatives. They were the talk of former McCain aide Andrea Saul’s wedding this past weekend in Wyoming and before that at the wedding of another ex-McCain aide, Brittany Bramell, now the CIA’s director of public affairs, in Middleburg, Virginia, earlier in July.

That speculation has been tinged, for some, with simmering resentments built up over a decade during which Schmidt increasingly drifted from his fellow Republican foot soldiers.

Before there were never-Trumpers there was Schmidt, who publicly expressed regret at his role in bringing Sarah Palin onto the 2008 Republican ticket, a fiasco that presaged the party’s turn toward reality-show populism.

But while Schmidt’s disavowals won him a strange new respect in elite circles, they also earned the enmity of his Republican operative peers and many of his colleagues on the McCain campaign. They felt he used media, especially the book “Game Change,” Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s best-selling account of the 2008 campaign, to wash his hands of Palin and burnish his image at the expense of others.

Some McCain alums also harbor a lingering gripe that Schmidt, in their estimations, gave up in the closing days of the race.

"He wasn't in the headquarters for the last three weeks,” said one senior member of McCain’s 2008 team, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He wanted to go home and see his family. He did not think we had a prospect to win, and he acted on it."

Another McCain campaign staffer said that account is overblown. Rather, he recalled Schmidt, 10 days out from the election, giving staffers a pep talk about “playing until the whistle blows.” But Schmidt, the staffer said, was playing beach ball in a campaign conference room later that afternoon.

A third senior McCain staffer disputed this and said Schmidt never flagged in his efforts. Schmidt declined to relitigate the decade-old campaign.

After the Palin experience, Schmidt became an early critic of the Republican Party’s drift generally, and the influence of Trump specifically.

"Birtherism is a fringe issue that's way out of the mainstream, and it's disturbing when you see people you ... have some level of respect for, whether it's members of Congress or even Donald Trump, falling into that category," he told CNN in 2012.

That said, Schmidt accepted a meeting with Trump in March 2016 during which he said the future president credited him with being the first television pundit to predict he would win the Republican primary — and offered him a job on the campaign. Schmidt declined the offer, and said his views on free trade and a strong national defense remain those of the GOP he once knew.

More recently, his complete separation from the party has drawn the ire not just of staunch Trump supporters, but also of other establishment Republicans who remain in the fold, bringing him into open conflict with former allies.

Last week, Schmidt described Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as complicit in the Russian election attack.

“I'm old enough to remember when Steve was in charge of messaging Abu Ghraib and ‘good news in Iraq’ by attacking any Republican who expressed concern,” tweeted Republican strategist Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to McConnell who remains closely aligned with the Senate majority leader, in response. Holmes was invoking Schmidt’s work in the George W. Bush administration as an aide to Dick Cheney.

Schmidt shot back with a tweet disputing Holmes’ characterization.

As Schmidt contemplates his next chapter, he is not taking the jabs personally. "Josh is a capable guy. I have a lot of respect for Josh,” Schmidt said in the interview. “We're not on the same side of the fight right now."

