Jennings served as political director for President
George W. Bush's
2000 Kentucky campaign, and as campaign manager for Sen.
Mitch McConnell's
2002 re-election campaign, Governor
Ernie Fletcher's
2003 campaign, and Bush's campaign in
New Mexico in
2004, before joining the White House. New Mexico was one of only two states to flip from blue to red in between
2000 and 2004; the other was
Iowa. He served as associate director in the Office of Political Affairs at the White House before being named special assistant to the president in October 2005. After leaving the White House, Jennings became Director of Strategic Development and Senior Strategist for Peritus Public Relations in
Louisville, Kentucky, before co-founding RunSwitch PR in Louisville in 2012. During the
2016 presidential election, he appeared frequently on the
Fox News Channel and other outlets as a commentator discussing polling and the political news of the day. In 2017, it was reported in various news outlets that Jennings had been offered, but turned down, a senior role in the Trump White House. In 2022, Jennings launched the podcast
Flyover Country with Scott Jennings, which features commentary on local, state, and national political issues as well as interviews with Mitch McConnell, former Attorney General
Daniel Cameron, commentator
Erick Erickson, and others.
Political operations in Kentucky Between 2000 and 2003, Jennings directed the political operations for Bush's presidential campaign, Senator Mitch McConnell's reelection campaign, and Ernie Fletcher's gubernatorial campaign. Bush defeated Al Gore in Kentucky, a state
Bill Clinton won twice, with 56.5%, McConnell set a record by scoring 65 percent in his campaign, and Fletcher became the first Republican governor in Kentucky in over 30 years by winning 55 percent of the vote. Jennings resumed his work in Kentucky in
2008, helping U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, Congressman
Brett Guthrie, and state legislative Republicans win their races. In
2019, Jennings made television and radio ads for Attorney General
Daniel Cameron, the first stand-alone African-American candidate to win statewide office in Kentucky.
2004 Bush campaign in New Mexico After losing New Mexico to
Al Gore in
2000 by just 366 votes, President Bush's
reelection campaign dispatched Jennings to manage its operations there. Jennings arrived in early 2004 to find a divided state Republican Party. Shortly after his arrival, the state party chairman, State Senator Ramsay Gorham, resigned both her chairmanship and legislative seat and moved out of the state. Jennings and Republican Party counterpart Jay McCleskey set about repairing the damaged party, recruiting 15,000 volunteers to execute a grassroots strategy that relied heavily on peer-to-peer, coalition-based activity. Bush ultimately won the state.
GSA Hatch Act inquiry In 2007, Jennings was mentioned in an inquiry into the politicization of the
General Services Administration (GSA). At a Congressional hearing, witnesses testified that on January26, 2007, Jennings was present at a meeting where GSA Administrator
Lurita Doan "joined in a video conference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates." While the OSC found that Doan violated the Hatch Act,
Elaine Kaplan, Special Counsel during the Clinton Administration, said that "nothing in the OSC's investigative report suggests that anything improper had occurred before Doan initiated the discussion." Jennings' presentation was similar in nature to several others disclosed by the White House. Special Counsel Scott Bloch told the
Washington Post, "Political forecasts, just generally... I do not regard as illegal political activity." White House Deputy Press Secretary
Dana Perino described the briefings to reporters: "It's not unlawful and it wasn't unusual for informational briefings to be given. There is no prohibition under the Hatch Act of allowing political appointees to talk to other political appointees about the political landscape in which they are trying to advance the president's agenda."
Dismissal of United States Attorneys controversy Jennings was involved in the
dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy in early 2007 testifying on August 2, 2007, before the
Senate Judiciary Committee. He invoked executive privilege and refused to answer most questions, claiming the president
George W. Bush had ordered his non-compliance. Democrats on the committee contested the legitimacy of the privilege assertion,
Patrick Leahy calling it, "...a bogus claim."
White House and RNC email accounts In the months leading up to the controversy around the dismissal of United States attorneys, Jennings communicated with
Justice Department officials "concerning the appointment of
Tim Griffin, a former
Karl Rove aide, as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, according to e-mails released [in March 2007]. For that exchange, Jennings, although working at the White House, used an e-mail account registered to the
Republican National Committee (RNC), where Griffin had worked as a political opposition researcher."
Involvement in 2014 U.S. Senate election in Kentucky Jennings ran a
Super PAC known as Kentuckians for Strong Leadership that supported the re-election of Mitch McConnell during the
2014 U.S. Senate election in Kentucky. In July 2014, Jennings told radio station
WFPL "I think the party is coming together just fine and I don't detect any problems for McConnell on GOP unity." During the race, Jennings was profiled in
New York magazine, which dubbed him "the master of attack." After the race, the Kentucky political news show "Pure Politics" interviewed Jennings and said that he had "shaped the race in McConnell's favor."
Involvement in 2016 Kentucky state legislative races In
2016, Jennings' Super PAC, Kentuckians for Strong Leadership (KSL), sought to help Republicans gain control of the
Kentucky House of Representatives. KSL spent $2 million on 19 legislative races as the GOP went from a 53-47 minority to a 64-36
super majority. "Pure Politics" credited KSL with helping the GOP achieve its objective. The group created a stir in the closing days of the campaign by sending thousands of Hillary Clinton birthday cards to voters across the state, asking them to "ruin Hillary's birthday" by voting against Clinton and "every Clinton Democrat running."
Media Columnist for Louisville Courier-Journal and Gannett Jennings became a contributing columnist to the Louisville
Courier-Journal in 2013, writing a conservative column that appears every other Wednesday. Jennings' columns are frequently picked up by
Gannett's flagship
USA Today. In Jennings' columns for the Louisville newspaper, he tackles policy and political issues affecting Kentucky and the nation. In 2018 and 2021, Jennings won a Society of Professional Journalists award for his
Courier-Journal writing. Jennings' writing also appears occasionally on
RealClearPolitics.
CNN In June 2017, Jennings joined
CNN as an on-air political contributor. He has made hundreds of appearances on the network on
AC360 with Anderson Cooper,
The Lead with Jake Tapper,
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, and other programs. In early June 2025, Jennings called the
Free Palestine movement a "domestic terror organization", and referred to the
Gaza genocide as a "conspiracy theory." On April 30, 2026, Jennings told fellow panel member Adam Mockler to get his "fucking hand out of [his] face" during a debate on
CNN NewsNight after criticism from Mockler. The clip of the exchange soon went viral.
Los Angeles Times Jennings was named a
Los Angeles Times contributing columnist in the fall of 2019. His initial column for the paper was called "Attitude and Gratitude: Why Republicans Stick with Trump", and was published shortly after Trump had been
impeached by the
U.S. House of Representatives. Jennings joined the
Times' editorial board in November 2024.
Harvard Kennedy School Jennings was named a resident fellow at the
Harvard Institute of Politics at
Harvard Kennedy School for the Spring 2018 semester. He taught a series of seminars on tribalism in American politics, and attracted such guest lecturers to his class as Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell and former White House Chief of Staff and RNC Chairman
Reince Priebus. In 2019, he was an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, teaching a course on modern American political campaigns. ==Personal life==