James Carville: The Ragin' Cajun Who Changed How Campaigns Work

The Ragin' Cajun Who Changed How Campaigns Work

Chester James Carville Jr. was born on October 25, 1944, at Fort Benning, Georgia, but he grew up in Carville, Louisiana — a place literally named after his grandfather. That's about as Louisiana as it gets. He attended LSU, served in the Marine Corps from 1966 to 1968, and then went back to LSU for law school. He passed the bar, practiced briefly, and then discovered that his real talent wasn't arguing cases — it was winning elections.

Carville spent years losing campaigns before he figured out the formula. His breakthrough came in 1991 when he managed Harris Wofford's come-from-behind Senate victory in Pennsylvania. Then came 1992, when Bill Clinton hired him to run the presidential campaign against incumbent George H.W. Bush. Carville posted a three-point memo in the war room. The second line read: "The economy, stupid." It became the most famous piece of campaign strategy in modern American politics.

The Unlikely Marriage

In 1993, Carville married Mary Matalin, who had served as Bush's deputy campaign manager — the very campaign Carville had just beaten. A Democratic attack dog and a Republican operative, married to each other. They wrote books together, appeared on television together, and raised two daughters while occupying opposite ends of the political spectrum. It was either the most cynical arrangement in Washington or the most romantic. Probably both.

A Career Without Parallel

Carville has worked on campaigns in at least twenty-three countries. He became a fixture on cable news, a bestselling author, and a political commentator who says things on television that most consultants only say in private. He's bald, he's loud, he's profane, and he has never once in his life been boring. The "Ragin' Cajun" nickname fits because it's not a nickname — it's a description. Louisiana made James Carville exactly as intense and unpredictable as Louisiana itself.