Black says that he fell in love with politics when he worked on the presidential campaign of Republican Barry Goldwater as a high school student in 1964. In 1972, he was a campaign worker in the first senatorial campaign of Jesse Helms running against Nick Galifinakis. Black co-founded the National Conservative Political Action Committee with Terry Dolan and Roger Stone. Black went on to work for a succession of Republican presidential campaigns from 1976 to 1992, including those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. His first hire on the Reagan campaign was Lee Atwater, whom he met during the course of his work with the Republican National Committee in 1972. Later Black served as the National Spokesperson for the RNC. He re-emerged as an adviser to George W. Bush's campaigns in 2000 and 2004, and was often quoted as White House spokesperson. He has been described as an "iconic Republican operative." Black was Senator John McCain's chief strategist in the 2008 presidential election. In a June 2008 Fortune magazine interview, Black said that McCain's "knowledge and ability to talk about" the "chaos lurking in the world", specifically the "unfortunate event" of Benazir Bhutto's assassination in December "reemphasized that was "the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us." Black also "conceded with startling candor" that "another terrorist attack on U.S. soil" "would be a big advantage to . During the 2016 presidential election Black was Governor John Kasich's campaign advisor.
Lobbying activity
In 1980 he co-founded the Washington, DC-based lobbying firm Black, Manafort and Stone with principals Paul Manafort, Roger J. Stone and Peter G. Kelly who joined the firm later. Black's lobbying firm became one of "Washington's most influential". In a 2008 interview with The Atlantic, Black defended BMSK against campaign ads made by MoveOn.org opposing John McCain. The ads asserted that Black "made millions lobbying for the world's worst tyrants". Black described how his lobbying firm "ran every potential foreign client by the State Department and/or the White House in whatever administration was in power and asked whether the scope of the work fit with American foreign policy goals." During the Reagan administration, then-President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos was one of Black's clients until Marcos "tried to steal the election" and "Reagan pulled the plug... resigned the account the same day". When Zaire's Mobuto Sese Seko was his client, the "State Department was encouraging to hold parliamentary elections and firm advised Sese Seko on how to conduct such elections." However, when Mobutu rejected the election results and became a dictator, BMSK resigned. By 2008, BMSK & Associates was owned by Burston Marsteller, and was run by Mark Pennit. BMSK's CEO was R. Scott Pastrick who was a former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and a supporter of Hillary Clinton's. Prime Policy Group is the result of the merger of two lobby firms in Washington in 2010, Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly & Associates Worldwide and Timmons and Company. Prime Policy Group represents large companies, trade and industry associations, foreign governments, state governments and municipalities, including Airbus and Google.
