Michael Stephen Steele (born October 19, 1958) is an American politician, attorney, and political commentator who served as the seventh lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007 and as chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2009 until 2011; he was the first African-American to hold either office.

[1] In the 1990s, Steele worked as a partner at the international law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae and co-founded the Republican Leadership Council, a "fiscally conservative and socially inclusive" political action committee.

[2] Steele also made numerous appearances as a political pundit on Fox News and other media outlets prior to running for public office.

As lieutenant governor, Steele chaired the Minority Business Enterprise task force, actively promoting an expansion of affirmative action in the corporate world.

Michael and his sister, Monica Turner, were raised in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest, Washington, D.C., which Steele has described as a small, stable and racially integrated community that insulated him from some of the problems elsewhere in the city.

[17] In 1981, Steele received a BA degree in international studies from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore City, Maryland.

[18] He spent three years preparing for the Catholic priesthood at the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University,[19] which he left prior to ordination to enter civil service.

[21][22] From 1991 to 1997, Steele worked in Washington, D.C., as a corporate securities associate for the Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton international law firm, where he specialized in financial investments for Wall Street underwriters.

He was a founding member of the centrist, fiscally conservative and socially inclusive Republican Leadership Council in 1993 but left in 2008, citing disagreements over endorsing primary candidates.

The Townsend-Larson campaign had been tainted by outgoing Democratic governor Parris Glendening's marital problems and backlash due to his strict enforcement of environmental regulations.

Steele's most prominent efforts for the Ehrlich administration were reforming the state's Minority Business Enterprise program and chairing the Governor's Commission on Quality Education in Maryland.

In April 2005, President Bush chose him to be a member of the U.S. delegation at the investiture of Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City.

[33] At a speech given at the Media Research Center's 2007 DisHonors Awards Gala, Steele said: I get a question all the time, 'Are you going to run again for office?'

[42] Source: CQPolitics[43] and Poll Pundit[44] On March 1, 2009, in response to a question on CBS's Face the Nation as to who spoke for the Republican Party, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel opined that Rush Limbaugh spoke for the Party; Emanuel asserted that "whenever a Republican criticizes [Limbaugh], they have to run back and apologize to him, and say they were misunderstood.

[57] The stops in individual districts gave Steele, "known for his bomb-throwing speaking style", an opportunity to fire up local GOP activists.

After seven rounds of balloting, Reince Priebus was elected over Steele, Saul Anuzis, Ann Wagner and Maria Cino.

[6] He also was hired to be a columnist for the online magazine The Root, an African-American news and commentary site owned by The Washington Post Company.

[63] On C-SPAN's Washington Journal on the Sunday after the 2012 Obama reelection victory, Steele expressed some interest in running for RNC Chairman again.

Steele emphasized the need to make conservative minorities feel comfortable and welcome in a party that offered them opportunities to launch political careers in counties and statehouses.

[64] In 2018, Steele was named a faculty fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, where he leads seminars.

[66] In April 2021, Steele expressed interest in running in the Republican primary for governor of Maryland,[67] later forming an exploratory committee in July 2021.

[69][70] In a formal response, Steele rejected these claims, citing that the committee had not made any expenditures and was not in violation of Maryland campaign finance law.

[74] On November 30, 2023, MSNBC announced that Steele would be co-hosting a new weekend morning show, alongside Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders-Townsend.

[82] This statement prompted criticism from socially conservative Republicans such as Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, as well as the Christian Coalition,[83] and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

[84] In response to these critics, Steele suggested that he asked God for patience "so I absolutely don't go out and kick this person's ass".

[85] In 2008, Steele said that he personally opposes a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, saying that he believes states should decide the issue for themselves.

"[90] In 2009, speaking on illegal immigration, Steele called for the U.S. to "secure our borders first", saying, "you cannot begin to address the concerns of the people who are already here unless and until you have made certain that no more are coming in behind them.

[92] In February 2006, Steele compared embryonic stem cell research to medical experiments performed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, remarks for which he later apologized.

[95] However, the war in Afghanistan was initiated by George W. Bush in October 2001 in retaliation for the September 11 attacks on New York City and Washington D.C.; Barack Obama increased troop levels there.

The Associated Press reported that, "Steele focuses much of the book on familiar GOP denunciations of President Barack Obama's overall policies ('a roadmap to failure'), the $787 billion stimulus bill ('a reckless, wasteful, pork-laden spending spree'), liberal views on man-made global warming ('A threat to life on Earth?