Upon graduation she worked at the Sawyer-Miller Group in New York. Gaining prominence through her work on the successful 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign, in which she was director of advertising, Grunwald made television appearances defending Bill Clinton, and helped produce The Man From Hope, the biographical film that was the centerpiece of the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Mandy Grunwald subsequently founded and became president of Grunwald Communications in Washington, D.C. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, she served as media consultant for three successful Senate campaigns for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as well as for the Ruth Messinger's losing effort in the 1997 New York City mayoral election. In 1999 she served as a broker across the frosty relations between the retiring Moynihan and Hillary Clinton. The latter would later successfully gain the former's seat in the 2000 New York senatorial election. In 2004, Grunwald worked for the senatorial campaign of Ken Salazar in Colorado and gubernatorial effort of John Lynch in New Hampshire, both of whom won. She also worked for Gifford Miller's Democratic primary campaign in New York City's 2005 mayoral race, who ultimately lost. The Washington Post identified her as one of the key members of "Hillaryland", Hillary Clinton's closest advisors beginning with her First Lady days. Grunwald's position as a White House advisor reportedly faded after 1995, when she and others were supplanted by Dick Morris according to the New York Times. However, in addition to acting as an important intermediary between the then Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Hillary Clinton for the 2000 New York senatorial election, Grunwald was appointed the head of campaign media relations for the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign. For her role in Clinton's successful 2006 senate run, Grunwald received more than $930,000. In the 2012 election, Grunwald worked on the successful election campaigns for Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Tammy Baldwin, two of the toughest Senate races in the country. Baldwin defeated Tommy Thompson, a four time Governor of Wisconsin, who was favored in the Senate race and Elizabeth defeated Scott Brown, who was the only incumbent Senator to lose his seat in the November 2012 election. The New York Times has described Grunwald as "smart, tough, gruff, intensely loyal to her candidates, with an air of superiority and great certainty." The Times also wrote, "As her sister, Lisa, a novelist, wrote in Glamour magazine four years ago: 'She was older. Braver. Taller. Meaner. Stronger.'" Grunwald is believed to have been the inspiration for the character "Daisy Green" in the roman à clef of the 1992 presidential campaign, Primary Colors, published by "Anonymous" in 1996. Moreover, before Joe Klein was revealed to be the creator, Mandy Grunwald and her novelist sister Lisa Grunwald were among the authorial suspects. In the 1998 film Primary Colors, the character based on her was portrayed by Maura Tierney. She is also partially the inspiration for The West Wing character Mandy Hampton.
Personal life
In 1997, Grunwald married journalist Matthew Cooper. They separated in late 2007. They have a son, born in 1998.
