Juleanna Glover is one of the most prominent members of the #NeverTrump crowd in Washington.
“Come on in. The water is warm. There are a lot of people who oppose Trump and will not support him,” she said. “And for a conservative woman to be opposed to Trump is the most naturally comfortable place to be, philosophically and morally.”
What’s less well-known is this: Glover was shaped early in her career by a woman who became vocally pro-Trump: the late Phyllis Schlafly, whom she met and lived with while working for the Eagle Forum in the 1990s.
The Washington Post sat down with Glover at her Northwest Washington home in early summer, before Schlafly’s death, to discuss her experiences as a woman in Washington. She provided us with an inside look at Schlafly’s life at her “magnificent mansion on the banks of the Mississippi,” Washington’s increasingly buttoned-up social life and how to achieve career success in the nation’s capital.
Her answers have been slightly edited for length.
POWERPOST: What was it like working for Phyllis Schlafly?
Glover: I learned a completely compulsive work ethic.
PP: Does that continue today?
Glover: I don’t sleep well if I’m not working. Anything that’s driven any small modicum of success I’ve had would be a mother who was frenetically active — if you sat down and weren’t doing anything, you didn’t want to be caught doing that — and then going to work for Phyllis Schlafly.
When I lived with her, every morning, she would be at her desk at 7 o’clock and she would be working. And I would be helping her research, or I would be helping her proofread. She wouldn’t get up from her desk until 11:30 a.m. She would have a bowl of muesli and she’d go back and she’d work. And she’d work until 6. And then she’d have a formal dinner, and she’d be done at 7 and “Crossfire” would come on and we would watch. … and then we’d go back to work.
She was a one-woman political dynamo. Whether you agree with her or not, her personal discipline and work ethic tailored a pattern [for me]. I derive my self-worth from knowing that I’ve worked hard and accomplished things. What she had built by 1990-1991, the operation that she had then — it was a huge political powerhouse in terms of different causes soliciting her support. Her ability to raise money was unparalleled. Eagle Forum was a huge deal.
PP: Do you think women face unique pressures in D.C.?
Glover: I don’t think so. You can sort of reduce it down to balancing family life and politics, but if you’re in politics as an impassioned participant in electing great and good people, it is a lifestyle choice. It’s not a job. It’s a mission.
PP: Some women have told us they were treated differently than men as they climbed the legislative and campaign ladders. Did you experience this?
Glover: I don’t ever feel that, but it may have been just willful disregard or obstinacy about admitting something like that would even happen. I don’t feel that [ever happened], but I don’t think that makes me special or different in any way.
I think I just probably had no idea it would be happening. I think I was too busy with the task at hand to calculate any sort of gender politics at play. I also don’t believe in places I was at that they would typically behave that way.
PP: What do you say to other Republican women who oppose Donald Trump?
Glover: Come on in. The water is warm. There are a lot of people who oppose Trump and will not support him. And for a conservative woman to be opposed to Trump is the most naturally comfortable place to be, philosophically and morally.
PP: Have you seen the social life of Washington change in the last 15 years?
Glover: The rise of handheld videos has made it so people don’t let their hair down as much as they used to. For young staff in particular — like when [former Obama speechwriter Jon] Favreau was caught in Georgetown playing beer pong — you don’t socialize in a more human, candid way around people you don’t know anymore because of that. If you hold a serious job for a serious principal, you have a responsibility to comport yourself in front of people who you may or may not trust in a way that is befitting of that principal.
But there have been some wacky nights seven or eight years ago where people would be doing ballet in the dining room at 11:30. I don’t know if I could get that done nowadays. They would not be from D.C. if that happened. …
It will be interesting to see what the Obamas do seven months from now. They can create an epicenter for D.C.’s social life. [The Obamas] will be here for two years.
PP: What advice do you have for women interested in a career like yours?
Glover: Whatever you want your next role to be, you have to pick it early and then steer in that direction. I knew when [former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani] dropped out [of the 2000 New York Senate race], that [George W.] Bush had staffed up on everybody, and I knew the next big job in national politics that I had a shot at was press secretary to the VP.
So I would do everything I could to make sure I saw [former Bush adviser] Karen Hughes or do everything I could to see whoever I knew could advocate on my behalf in an environment where nobody knew who the VP would be. I would just ask a lot and hopefully not on the border of annoying. But out of sight, out of mind.
PP: Does it bother you to be covered in the press so frequently as a social mover-and-shaker?
Glover: Although I love talking with people and I love seeing people, I want to be remembered for providing my political principals and my companies with solid advice and extraordinary deliverables.
What do I want to be when I grow up? I’d love to be [Wall Street Journal columnist] Peggy Noonan. I write whenever I can. I think she has the best job in the political world right now.
If you’re adverse to me in a client matter, are you likely to say to your client: “Oh, she’s just a social gadfly?” “She’s not going to cause a problem?” Good. Underestimate me at your own expense. I’m happy to be underestimated in those circumstances.
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