Inner Circle

Half the Republican Field Seeks Advice From This Princeton Professor

Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and other candidates prize Robert P. George’s advice on the thorniest social issues of the 2016 campaign. But he arrives at his own answers by befriending Cornel West and others who strongly disagree with him.

Robert George, Princeton professor, conservative mind, and adviser to Ted Cruz, in his office in Princeton, New Jersey, on September 23, 2015.
Photographer: Chris Goodney/Bloomberg

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By Melinda Henneberger

October 21, 2015 at 9:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Robert P. George is not a political consultant. “I’m not Karl Rove or David—what’s his name?—Axelrod.” In fact, he says, “Any candidate who’d ask me for campaign advice should drop out immediately, because he’s too stupid to be running for president.” Yet few advisers are having more influence on conservative thinking this presidential campaign cycle. The McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, George is an unofficial counselor to several Republican hopefuls, including Ben Carson, Senator Ted Cruz, and Jeb Bush.

Senator Marco Rubio’s staff calls George, too, mostly on religious liberty issues, and Mike Huckabee has named him as the thinker whose work has most influenced him, though they’ve never met.