CNN Commentator Alice Stewart Dead At 58

CNN has reported the death of Alice Stewart, one of its leading conservative commentators for political coverage, who died on the morning of May 18, 2024 at the age of 58.

No official cause of death has been announced as of this writing, but police told CNN that it was likely a sudden medical event. Stewart was outside in Alexandria, Virginia, when she died. Just one day prior, the Georgia native had shared a post on Instagram about how excited she was to join her colleagues, Wolf Blitzer and Maria Cardona, on "CNN Newsroom." Instead of preparing to join her for another round of debating the latest political news over the weekend, they found themselves sharing their sadness over Stewart's death in posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. "As many know, Alice & I were like sisters from opposite ends of the political aisle," Cardona wrote. "We debated but w respect. I will miss her dearly but seems God needed some top-notch communications help." This high praise for Stewart's talent was a reference to her past working as a communications director for a number of former Republican presidential hopefuls, including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, and Ted Cruz. Stewart was also a board member at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics.

One of the topics the Harvard Fellow talked about often on CNN was Donald Trump, and she had complicated feelings about the former president.

In a 2020 interview with the Harvard Political Review, Alice Stewart revealed that she voted for Donald Trump even though she was not the biggest fan of some of his behavior, and she prided herself on offering a unique perspective as a Trump voter who was also willing to voice her disapproval over his actions when she felt that he deserved it. On more than one occasion, the sharp-tongued commentator eviscerated the former president. After Karen McDougal spoke to Anderson Cooper about her alleged affair with Trump, Stewart told former CNN host Don Lemon during a "CNN Tonight" appearance, "When you lie in bed with dogs, you get fleas." Stewart brought up Trump's messy love life again in 2022. "The Constitution is not like a spouse," she said. "You can't just get rid of it when it no longer suits your purposes."

While she was capable of delivering some brutal blows to politicians behaving badly, many of Stewart's colleagues remembered the Grady School of Journalism grad as someone who didn't let her political views sour her relationships with coworkers who did not share them. "She was my favorite Republican," CNN contributor Keith Boykin tweeted. "We disagreed on nearly every issue, but she was always civil and respectful." New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi echoed this sentiment, writing, "She was proof that people with wildly different beliefs could not only be civil but could love one another."