For more than 20 years, Wayne Slater has been covering national and state politics. Getting his first start as a reporter for the Parkersburg (W. Va.) Sentinel, Slater moved on to work for the AP in Colorado, Kansas, Illinois and West Virginia.But it was in Texas with the Dallas Morning News where Slater would become a well known, award-winning political reporter. Serving for 15 years as the paper's Austin bureau chief, he covered seven sessions of the Texas Legislature and the administrations of five Texas governors.
Slater is not only a reporter, but also an author, professor and blogger. He received a lot of attention for the New York Times bestseller "Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush," which was also made into a feature documentary. Along with co-writer James Moore, Slater would follow up 'Bush's Brain' with two other books, “Rove Exposed: How Bush’s Brain Fooled America” (2005) and “The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power” (2006).
Slater has an extensive knowledge of Bush, having conducted numerous interviews with the president. He even traveled with Bush's presidential campaign for 16 months. Slater can be seen during this period in the documentary "Journeys with George."
Catch Slater's keynote address at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Fiesta Ballroom.
