PERSON: Ed Rollins

Campaign Consultant

Edward Rollins (born March 19, 1943) is an American political consultant and advisor who has worked on several high-profile Republican political campaigns in the United States. In 1983 and 1984, Rollins was national campaign director for the successful Reagan-Bush 1984 campaign. He is currently Chief Political Strategist at the pro-Ron DeSantis PAC Ready for Ron. Rollins previously served as chairman of the pro–Donald Trump Great America PAC.

Rollins was born in Boston, Massachusetts, into an Irish Catholic blue-collar household. At the time, his father was stationed with the U.S. Army in the Aleutian Islands. After the war, his parents returned with him to Vallejo, California, where his father worked as an electrician at the city’s Mare Island Navy Yard, primarily building submarines. Rollins grew up in the Federal Terrace housing project, attending St. Vincent Ferrer Grammar and High School. For a year, at age 14, he attended St. Joseph’s College, a junior seminary in Mountain View, before returning to Vallejo. He competed as a boxer from ages 13 to 23, winning several West Coast amateur titles. Rollins recalls his record as 164 victories and just 2 defeats.

Graduating from high school in 1961, he tried to enlist in the Marines, but failed the physical. Shortly thereafter, Rollins spent most of a year in the hospital dealing with his back problems. Once healthy, in 1962, he began undergraduate studies at Vallejo Junior College, eventually earned his associate degree, and transferred to San Jose State University in 1965. Unable to pass the physical exam required for a sports scholarship because of his continuing back problems, after one semester Rollins transferred to California State University, Chico, where he was hired as boxing coach. There he earned his BA in political science with a second major in physical education in 1968.

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