Mark McKinnon

Mark McKinnon was a nationally recognized political consultant, media columnist, television personality and producer who was the executive producer and co-host of the Showtime docuseries "The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth" (Showtime, 2016-17). Born and raised in Colorado, McKinnon's first love was music. He dropped out of high school in his Junior year and moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a folk musician. It was there that he began writing songs professionally, while working with such big name acts as Kris Kristofferson. After a few years in Nashville McKinnon moved to Austin, Texas and enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin. While attending the university McKinnon became the editor of the school newspaper, The Daily Texan, and first became interested in politics. McKinnon edited the newspaper in the early 1980s, but left the University of Texas before he could graduate. McKinnon stayed in Texas, however, where he began working on local political campaigns. He spent the remainder of the 80s and much of the 90s working on the campaigns for some of the biggest names in Texas politics, including Governor Ann Richards and the legendary Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, the subject of the 2007 film "Charlie Wilson's War." After being impressed with then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush after meeting him in the 1990s, McKinnon worked on Bush's two successful presidential campaigns, in 2000 and 2004, taking the role of Chief Media Advisor. He also worked on John McCain's failed 2008 presidential campaign, in which he also served as a media advisor. By the early 2010s McKinnon began working as a consultant on such top-rated television dramas as "The Newsroom" (HBO, 2012-14) and "House of Cards" (Netflix, 2013-18). His love for politics, however, never subsided, and in 2016 he began co-hosting and executive producing the acclaimed Showtime docuseries "The Circus." The series followed the seemingly chaotic 2016 Presidential race, culminating with the election of former reality TV star Donald J. Trump in November of that year. The third season of "The Circus" premiered in April of 2018 with Alex Wagner as the third co-host, in addition to McKinnon and John Heilemann. Wagner replaced Game Change co-author Mark Halperin, who was fired from the series after numerous women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment.