Hastings Wyman

Hastings Wyman (born January 2, 1939) is an American political consultant, journalist, author, pundit, and attorney based in Washington D.C. From 1978 to 2005, he served as the founding editor of Southern Political Report, a bi-weekly nonpartisan newsletter of political analysis of thirteen states of the American South.

Hastings Wilder Wyman, Jr. was born on January 2, 1939, in Aiken, South Carolina, to Hastings "Wee" Wyman, Sr. (October 17, 1912 – January 28, 1998), and the former Elizabeth Babb (June 7, 1914 – September 25, 1998). He has two sisters: Elizabeth W. Silk of New York City, and Nancy W. Ray of Rock Hill, South Carolina. His father owned and operated Wyman Realty and served on the Aiken Zoning Board, the Aiken City Council, and as mayor pro-tem.

Wyman, Jr., attended public schools in Camden and later, in Aiken. He then studied at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduating magna cum laude in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in U.S. government. His roommate was later U.S. Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat politician who later served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. Frank, a liberal politician, once said of discussing politics with Wyman, "He and I used to argue all the time. But it was not out of anger, it was out of an interest in the topics." When Frank visited Wyman's home in Aiken, South Carolina,—his first visit to the South—Frank made a point of drinking from the since-abolished "colored-only" water fountain then available to African Americans.

Wyman then studied law at the University of South Carolina, graduating in 1964.

Law and politics

After graduating with a degree in law, Wyman started his career as a lawyer. He held his law license in South Carolina from August 27, 1964, until March 5, 1982, when he resigned from the bar. In 1965, aged twenty-six, he was elected chairman of the Republican Party in Aiken County, South Carolina, a group dominated by conservatives. The following year, he was named southern states field representative for the Republican National Committee.

In 1967, Wyman became a staff aide to the Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, also a native of Aiken, South Carolina. He remained with Thurmond until 1973 except for a six-months leave of absence in 1970 to manage the gubernatorial campaign for Republican U.S. Representative Albert William Watson of South Carolina's 2nd congressional district.

From 1975 until 1998, he worked in the public affairs department of the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, D.C.

Journalism

From 1978 onwards, he began writing for The Southern Political Report, a non-partisan biweekly newsletter that covers the politics and politicians of 13 Southern states. In 2005, InsiderAdvantage, a multi-media company based in Atlanta, Georgia, purchased The Southern Political Report.

Over the years, Wyman also wrote articles for The Washington Post, The American Spectator, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, and The New York Times. In October 2012, New York Times published his article An Inescapable History, which attempted to explain why blue-collar workers in the South are more conservative politically than their counterparts in the remainder of the nation.

His papers on Southern politics, including all issues of Southern Political Report, as well as his speeches, by-lined articles, and other materials, are in the Modern Political Collections of the University of South Carolina's South Caroliniana Library.

He has also presented his political commentary on radio and television.

While at Harvard, Wyman confided to Frank, his Harvard friend (a Democrat politician), that he (Wyman) is homosexual. In 1987, after Frank became the first sitting member of the United States Congress to announce his homosexuality; Wyman followed suit and revealed his homosexuality in the mid-1990s after several years of marriage and two children.

In 2014, Wyman was seen in Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank—a documentary on Barney Frank directed by Sheila Canavan and Michael Chandler. Other big names to appear in the documentary were: Nancy Pelosi, Bethany McLean, Eliot Spitzer, and Maxine Waters, among many others.

From his October 2012 article An Inescapable History Homogeneity, a lack of a liberal immigrant influence and animosity toward blacks kept white Southern workers solidly Republican.

Mercer R. Book and Maya Jonas-Silver (May 21, 2012). Barney Frank. The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved on November 5, 2020.