Dana Loesch

Dana Lynn Loesch (/læʃ/ LASH; née Eaton; born September 28, 1978) is an American radio and TV host. She is a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association and a former writer and editor for Breitbart News. Loesch was the host of the program Dana on TheBlaze TV from 2014 to 2017. She also hosts a nationally syndicated weekday radio talk show. Loesch has appeared as a guest on television networks such as Fox News, CNN, CBS, ABC, and HBO.

Loesch was raised by her mother, Gale, in an extended family of Southern Baptists. She claims descent from Cherokees in Georgia, who she described were "moved on the Trail of Genocide" and later listed on the Dawes Rolls. She is also of Irish descent through her paternal grandmother. She graduated from Fox High School in Arnold, Missouri. She later attended St. Louis Community College at Meramec before transferring to Webster University to study journalism. While there, she was a Democrat and worked on Bill Clinton's reelection campaign.

Following a pregnancy, Loesch dropped out of college and married, having her first child when she was 23. Loesch became disillusioned with the Democratic Party after the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal and fully rejected it after the September 11 attacks.

After leaving Webster University,^[when?] Loesch began writing for St. Louis Magazine, doing investigative news articles, and began her website "Mamalogues". From 2006-2008, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran "Mamalogues" as a weekly online column, winning Loesch Riverfront Times' "Best Newspaper Columnist St. Louis" for 2007. Loesch started hosting her radio show in 2008; it became a nationally syndicated, daily program, The Dana Show: The Conservative Alternative, on Radio America from flagship station KFTK-FM in St. Louis. In July 2008, Loesch was chosen as one of St. Louis Business Journal's top 30 Under 30. She was recognized by the Nielsen ratings as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Mom Bloggers. In 2009, Loesch co-founded the St. Louis Tea Party along with its board president, Bill Hennessy, but left the organization in December 2011.

In October 2010, Loesch was hired to be editor-in-chief of Big Journalism, a conservative website created by Andrew Breitbart. In February 2011, CNN hired Loesch as a political analyst in preparation for its 2012 election coverage. In 2012, Loesch was the recipient of Accuracy In Media's Grassroots Journalism award. She also guest hosted for other national radio hosts such as Glenn Beck and Michael Savage. In 2012, Loesch was added to Talkers Magazine's top 100 "heavy hitters" and was number 24 in 2017.

In January 2012, Loesch spoke on her show in defense of U.S. Marines videotaped urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters, commenting that "I'd drop trou and do it, too. That's me though. I want a million cool points for these guys (Marines). Is that harsh to say?"

In December 2012, after the death of founder Andrew Breitbart earlier in the year, Loesch sued the parent company of her former employer, Breitbart LLC. Loesch claimed in court documents that owner and operator Breitbart LLC bound her to "what amounts to indentured servitude in limbo" after she said she was forced to terminate her contract as the result of a hostile working environment. She reached a non-monetary settlement with Breitbart in 2013.

In 2013, Loesch hosted the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).