Roy Temple

Roy Temple is a veteran Democratic political strategist from the great state of Missouri.

Temple is an innovator in the use of digital media in advocacy efforts. He is an original founder of Fired Up! Missouri, recognized by the Washington Post as an outstanding local political blog. In addition, Temple secured a pivotal FEC advisory opinion (FEC AO 2005-16) that offers guidance to bloggers about the intersection of blogging, advocacy, and campaign finance law.

Temple has been active in Democratic politics since 1986, having served as political director on Governor Mel Carnahan's first bid for Governor of Missouri and as campaign manager for his re-election in 1996. Temple was also Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff to Governor Carnahan during his tenure. Temple served as the liaison between Governor Mel Carnahan and the Clinton White House on federal issues and appointments, and worked with Governors and their staffs from across the country during Carnahan’s tenure as Chairman of the Democratic Governor’s Association.

Temple later served as U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan’s Chief of Staff. In that role, Temple supported Carnahan’s work on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee, and the Government Affairs Committee (now the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs). Temple was particularly involved in Carnahan’s work on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations during the hearings on the collapse of Enron.

In 2004, Temple served as the Missouri State Director for the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry, and in the general election served as the Minnesota State Director for Kerry-Edwards 2004.

During the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, Temple was a principal in the Washington, D.C.-based Democratic polling firm, The Feldman Group. At the Feldman Group, he worked primarily on U.S. Senate races, and in 2006, his work included Senator Sherrod Brown’s effort in Ohio, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s independent expenditure efforts in Maryland, Montana and Rhode Island. During the 2008 cycle, Temple was heavily involved in Al Franken’s pursuit of the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota, and worked closely on the DSCC independent expenditure efforts in the Oregon Senate race.

Temple’s analysis and commentary has been cited in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, U.S.A. Today, U.S. News and World Report, POLITICO, and by the Associated Press. In addition, he has appeared on the NBC Evening News, CNN, MSNBC, the Fox News Channel, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and others.

Temple graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a B.S. in Business Administration. He is also a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of law where he earned his J.D. Temple is a member of the Missouri Bar.

He would appreciate a follow on Twitter.