Sam Patten is a writer and political strategist who has worked extensively, at senior levels in the United States and globally.

At home, Patten has played key roles in political campaigns from the U.S. Senate to the White House. He was instrumental in the election of Maine Republican Susan Collins and ran statewide operations for the Bush/Cheney ticket in 2000. Since then, he has advised candidates across America.

In the Bush Administration he served as a senior advisor to the State Department on democracy promotion. He ran political operations for the International Republican Institute in Iraq during that country’s first free election in 50 years, and has also served as IRI’s country director in Russia.

Over the past fifteen years, Patten has worked as a private advisor to political leaders around the world from Eurasia to Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Central America. Beyond his work in the run-up to the 2005 Iraqi election, Patten has advised two Iraqi parties on party building and campaign operations between 2006-2014. In 2016 he served as executive director of the Committee to Destroy ISIS, an organization focused helping Iraqis build peace and stability.

In 2018, Patten pleaded guilty to failing to register under Foreign Agent Registration Act in a charge brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, making him the ninth U.S. citizen to be convicted in the law’s 70-year history. His specific offense involved ghostwriting for a Ukrainian political leader on how to bring peace to that war-torn country.

Since then, Patten has focused on writing and volunteer work centered on criminal justice reform. He is a Justice Ambassador for Prison Fellowship Ministry, founded by the late Charles Colson. Patten’s writing has appeared in the Bangor Daily News, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, the Daily Caller, the Washington Free Beacon, Breitbart, US News and World Report, Politico, the Hill and various other publications around the world.