Catherine Elise Jordan is an American journalist, political analyst and TV personality, born on 23 September 1982, in Holly Springs, Mississippi USA. She used to be a speechwriter for Condoleezza Rice, Director of Communications of The National Security Council during President George W. Bush’s administration. She has appeared as a political analyst on NBC News and MSNBC, and is known to be a Republican Party supporter.
First Steps
Elise is the daughter of Kelly Jordan and Susan Boone Jordan; she has a brother named Russell Her curiosity on journalism started early in her life during high school, and from an early age showed an interest in writing, a fact that she demonstrated when she wrote a formal letter apologizing to her mother in her teens.
Posted by Elise Jordan on Sunday, April 13, 2014
Education, Hobbies and Family
Yale University
Elise graduated in 2004 from Yale University with a degree in history. Not much is known about her time at Yale, her friends or any extra-curricular activities there.
Hobbies
Besides her love for writing and journalism, Elise often shows her love for animals, and interest on ski on her Instagram account. She owns a corgi dog named Bobby. One of the main recurring hobbies of Elise is to spend time with her nieces and nephews, sharing a fair number of photos of them on her Instagram.
Career
First Jobs
Elise Jordan started her career when she graduated from Yale, obtaining her first prominent job in the State Department as a speechwriter for the second Secretary of State during George Bush’s administration, Condoleezza Rice. who later became the National Security Council’s Director of Communications and a speechwriter for the President. In 2008 she started working in Baghdad’s US Embassy.
When the Bush administration ended, in 2009 Elise started working for Deloitte & Touche and later in 2011 she became a columnist for the conservative editorial magazine National Review Online. She only worked on the latter for six months, but it helped her gain experience as a columnist, a fact that she would demonstrate later when she became a contributor for prominent portals and magazines such as The Daily Beast and Time.
TV Shows – 2011 to 2016
In 2011 she would appear for the first time on Fox News, in the satirical talk show “Red Eye with Tom Shillue”, and for a second time in “Hannity”, a show also aired on Fox News in which she’s made several appearances through the years. Her participation in these shows created her reputation as a Republican supporter and political commenter. During the next years, she would appear in shows such as “‘Fox and Friends”, and “On the Record with Brit Hume”, both shows of conservative political nature. Other shows she has made several appearances in since 2016 are “Morning Joe” and “Weekend Today”, on NBC News.
NBC News and MSNBC – 2016 to Present
Her participation in NBC News and MSNBC, both networks that often display progressive political views, has put her out her comfort zone and challenged her opinions.
It has also given her a platform to display a wider variety of opinions, to the point that she has made visible her disapproval of Trump’s administration through these networks.
Podcast “Words Matter” – 2018
In 2018, after openly showing her disapproval of Trump politics, she created a political centre-right themed podcast named “Words Matter”, with co-host Steve Schmidt and produced by Adam Levine, a project that ended abruptly in February 2019 when in one of the episodes of the podcast, Jordan and its producer interviewed Schmidt, inquiring on Howard Schultz running as an independent candidate for the US presidency. Schmidt who was Schultz advisory, walked out of the studio in the middle of the interview; it was presumed that Jordan and Levine didn’t know about Schmidt advising Schultz, but the questions asked during the interview put Schmidt in a rough position.
After the episode, Schmidt talked about his disapproval of the questioning during the program. After this episode, Elise Jordan also quit the podcast, but the project is still active under the same name, with different hosts.
Personal Life: Relationships and Marriages
Michael Hastings – 2007 to 2013
Elise Jordan met Michael Hastings while she was working as a speechwriter for Condoleezza Rice. Later she started dating him when they were both in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2009. In 2010’s New Years, Hastings proposed to Jordan and they married in May 2011. Hastings was a renowned American journalist, reporter and author, also an editor and often contributor to Rolling Stone and Buzzfeed.
He gained fame as a journalist when he published “The Runaway General” in 2010, a story about Stanley McChrystal, a general of the US Army, in Rolling Stone. This report gained Hastings a Polk Award and the Huffington Post named him one of the “Game Changers” of 2010. Besides his work as a reporter, Hastings has also published a book entitled “I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story” in 2008, two years before his report on McChrystal. In this book, Hastings recounts the day in which his former fiancée, Andrea Parhamovich was killed in Baghdad in 2007, when the convoy she was travelling in was ambushed. These works and his reports from Baghdad gained Hastings a good reputation in the media.
Hastings Death – 2013.
On 18 June 2013, Michael Hastings died in a car accident in Los Angeles, leaving a widowed Elise Jordan and many questions regarding his death open.
A year after he died, a novel entitled “The Last Magazine” written by Hastings was published by Elise Jordan, who edited it and brought it to life after she found the manuscript after his passing away.
Mike Hogan – 2017 to Present
Elise Jordan found love once again after several years of Hastings’ passing. Mike Hogan and her married on 23 September 2017, and went on their honeymoon in Italy. It’s unknown when Elise met Mike Hogan for the first time, but before the wedding they often shared pictures of themselves together, taking care of Bobby, Jordan’s corgi, or with their nieces and nephews. They have also shared small bits of their ski trips on Instagram. Mike Hogan is the digital editor of Vanity Fair.
Children
Elise Jordan doesn’t have any children as of yet. She often refers to her corgi dog Bobby, as her and her husband Mike’s child.
Net worth
As of 2020, Elise Jordan has an estimated net worth at over $1.2 million, expected to increase as she keeps working in journalism and making TV appearances.
Physical characteristics
Elise Jordan is a woman of white ethnicity, with a slender build; she’s 6ft 1in (1.85m) tall. Her eyes are green and her natural hair color is blonde, and she keeps it a stylized short length. She looks elegant and professional when she appears on TV.
Interesting Facts
- Elise Jordan is known to be a Republican supporter; however she has shown her displeasure at Trump’s administration and politics on several occasions.
- Regardless of her conservative political preferences, Jordan appears as a political analyst on NBC News and MSNBC, networks that often lead more towards progressive political opinions.
- Her father Kelly Jordan died in 2016.
- She has a brother named Russell Jordan.
- She married on 22 September 2017, just two days before her birthday.
- Elise has a niece who was named after her.
- Along with her family, Elise often takes vacation trip to her hometown in Mississippi.