Quin Hillyer

Richard Quin Edmonson Hillyer

(Moderate Republican journalist)

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Born |  March 16, 1964
New Orleans, Louisiana

Resident of Mobile, Alabama

Spouse |  Tresy Hillyer

No children
Parents:
Haywood Hansell Hillyer, III
Brenda Edmonson Hillyer

Religion |  Episcopalian

Richard Quin Edmonson Hillyer, known as Quin Hillyer (born March 16, 1964),[1] is a journalist and Moderate Republican politician based in Mobile, Alabama. He is the senior editor of The American Spectator[2] and has written for William F. Buckley, Jr.'s National Review, and was named the managing editor in 1989 of the weekly news magazine Gambit in his native New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also the associate editorial-page editor of The Washington Examiner.[3]

## Background[edit]

Hillyer is the younger of two sons of Haywood Hansell Hillyer, III (1937-2010), a Louisiana Republican activist,[4] who is interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans,[5] and the former Brenda Edmonson (born October 8, 1941) of Hendersonville, North Carolina.[6] His wife is Tresy Hillyer. His brother, Hayward Hillyer, IV (1961-2017), was a New Orleans insurance executive who remained behind during Hurricane Katrina to help with rescue efforts and to tend to property and pets left behind by his friends.[7]

Hillyer attended the Isidore Newman School in New Orleans before transferring to the Roman Catholic-affiliated Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., from which he graduated in 1986 with concentration in government and theology.[3]

## Career[edit]

After working for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, Hillyer became a research director and press secretary to Republican former U.S. Representative Bob Livingston,[3] who ran unsuccessfully for governor of Louisiana in 1987 and twelve years later stepped down from Louisiana's 1st congressional district, based in suburban New Orleans, after he was exposed for an adulterous affair. Livingston had been in line to become House Speaker to succeed Newt Gingrich. In the early 1990s, Hillyer publicly opposed the Republican state Representative David Duke, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan who ran for the U.S. Senate in 1990 and for the Louisiana governorship in 1991.

Hillyer has written for a wide assortment of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New Republic, The Guardian in England, the Washington Times, and Investor's Business Daily. In 1997, he joined the editorial staff of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in the capital city of Little Rock, Arkansas, with a focus on local and national issues during the term of Republican Governor Mike Huckabee. A year later in 1998, Hillyer joined the editorial desk at The Mobile Register, at which he gained acclaim for his coverage of statewide politics and its effect on the city.[3]

In 2013, Hillyer ran in a special election in Alabama's 1st congressional district with a high-profile endorsement by former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and finished fourth with nearly 14 percent of the vote in the Republican primary to fill the seat vacated by Jo Bonner (male),[3] who became vice chancellor for the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Victory went to Republican Bradley Byrne. Hillyer continues to write columns and is a writer in residence at the University of Mobile.[3]

In July 2017, Hillyer called for the resignation of then U.S. President Donald Trump on the premise that Trump lacks "wisdom, objectivity, and reasonable perspective" in regard to the threat of Russia from a military and diplomatic standpoint. In 1998, Hillyer had also called for the resignation of the scandal-plagued President Bill Clinton.[8]

Still, strongly anti-Trump, Hillyer hailed U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican from Louisiana, for voting to convict Trump in a second impeachment on February 13, 2021. Cassidy has faced a storm of intraparty criticism for that vote.[4]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Richard Hillyer. Mylife.com. Retrieved on February 21, 2018.
2. ↑ Quin Hillyer. The American Spectator. Retrieved on February 21, 2018.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Quin Hillyer. National Review. Retrieved on February 21, 2018.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Moon Griffon Show, February 19, 2021.
5. ↑ Heywood Hansell Hillyer, III. Oldfindagrave.com. Retrieved on February 21, 2018.
6. ↑ Brenda Edmonson Hillyer. Retrieved on February 21, 2018.
7. ↑ Haywood Hansell Hillyer, IV, obituary. New Orleans Times-Picayune (January 3, 2018). Retrieved on February 21, 2018.
8. ↑ Quin Hillyer (July 17, 2017). Why this conservative thinks it's time for Trump to go. The Washington Examiner. Retrieved on April 18, 2018.