Bruce Herschensohn


Stanley Bruce Herschensohn is a conservative American political commentator, author and senior fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy in Malibu, California.
Herschensohn quickly rose to prominence in the Republican Party, becoming a consultant to the Republican National Convention in 1972 and joined the Nixon administration on September 11, 1972. He served primarily as a speech writer. He left following Nixon's resignation, but served on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Transition Team and as an official in the Reagan administration.
Previously, Herschensohn has been a Distinguished Fellow at the Claremont Institute and a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has taught politics at the University of Maryland, Whittier College and at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy.

Political campaigns

Unsuccessful 1986 U.S. Senate primary campaign

In 1986, Herschensohn unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the United States Senate seat held by Democrat Alan Cranston. He finished far ahead of the crowded pack in most of Southern California but finished second statewide to Silicon Valley Representative Ed Zschau, who won the nomination by plurality.

1992 U.S. Senate election

In 1992, when Cranston retired, Herschensohn won the Republican nomination narrowly, defeating U.S. Representative Tom Campbell, a more moderate Republican who had been on the faculty of Stanford University and who had been elected to Zschau's former Congressional seat. Herschensohn received 956,136 votes to Campbell's 895,970. The remaining 417,848 ballots went to Mayor Sonny Bono of Palm Springs, also a relative moderate. During the primary campaign and afterwards, Herschensohn became a close friend of Bono and encouraged his former rival to seek election to the United States House of Representatives in 1994.
Herschensohn lost the 1992 general election to the Democratic Party nominee Barbara Boxer, while winning over one million votes more than the national ticket of the Republican Party.

Career