Victor "Vic" Gold (September 25, 1928 – June 5, 2017) was an American journalist, author, and Republican political consultant.
Gold encouraged Republicans in both Alabama and Louisiana as they sought with slow success to overcome the long-term dominance of the Democrats in their states.
[5] Gold's interest in Republican politics began after the Bay of Pigs invasion, which made him disillusioned with the presidency of Democrat John F. Kennedy, for whom he had voted in 1960.
[5] In his chronicle of the 1964 election, Theodore H. White described Gold as having played a critical role in helping to overcome the press corps' hostility toward Goldwater.
A 2007 article in The Washington Post quoted White as saying that Gold "carried [the journalists'] bags, got them to the trains on time, out-shouted policemen on their behalf, bedded them down and woke them up, and before they knew it, the correspondents, about 95 percent anti-Goldwater by conviction, had been won to a friendship with the diminutive intellectual which spilled over onto his hero.
"[6] In 1965, Gold opened his own political public relations firm in Washington, D.C., serving Republican clients including Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, and Shirley Temple Black.
[5][7] At the Republican National Conventions of 1968 and 1976 he worked with press secretary Lyn Nofziger in support of the presidential candidacy of Ronald W. Reagan, who was at the time governor of California.
[5][9] In 1989, he was appointed to a delegation sent by President Bush to provide oversight of the first free elections in Romania after the ouster of Nicolae Ceauşescu.
[10][11] In November 2014, Gold participated in a panel held at The Heritage Foundation on the legacy of Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign.
Moderator Lee Edwards introduced him as follows: "Vic Gold is the wizard of wordsmiths, the prince of press secretaries, the man with the shortest temper in Washington routinely called Old Faithful because he blows up at least every 91 minutes, trusted adviser to vice presidents and presidents, a graduate of the University of Alabama Law School who loves to quote Bear Bryant and hoist high the Crimson Tide, indefatigable deputy press secretary for Barry Goldwater in 1964.