Keynote Speaker: James Carville

Thursday, October 16, 2025 | 12:15 PM – 2:00 PM CDT
Crescent City Ballroom – Mezzanine Level
SPONSORED BY WHITE OAK COMMERCIAL FINANCE

Immediately following the TMA Awards Ceremony, join us for a keynote luncheon like no other, as famed political strategist and New Orleanian James Carville sits down with TMA President Rachael Smiley for an unscripted, candid conversation. Together, they’ll explore Carville’s unique perspective on leadership, strategy, and navigating complexity—delivered with the wit, candor, and storytelling that have made him a household name. This is your chance to experience an engaging exchange that’s as insightful as it is entertaining—New Orleans style.

James “The Ragin’ Cajun” Carville is famous for his knack for steering overlooked campaigns to unexpected landslide victories and for re-making political underdogs into upset winners.

His winning streak began in 1986, when he managed Robert Casey’s gubernatorial victory in Pennsylvania. In 1987, Carville helped guide Wallace Wilkinson to the governor’s seat in Kentucky.

Carville continued his winning streak with a win in New Jersey, with Frank Lautenberg elected to the US Senate. He next managed the successful 1990 gubernatorial campaign of Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor Zell Miller, including a tough primary win over Atlanta mayor Andrew Young. In 1991, Carville – who had already become prominent in many political circles – drew national attention when he led Senator Harris Wofford from 40 points behind in the polls to an upset landslide victory over former Pennsylvania Governor and U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh. His most prominent victory was in 1992 when he helped William Jefferson Clinton win the U.S. presidency.

In recent years, Carville has not been a paid political consultant for many domestic politicians or candidates, instead focusing on campaigns in more than 23 countries around the globe, stretching from the continents of South America to Europe to Africa, and most recently, Asia.

James Carville is also a best-selling author, actor, producer, talk-show host, speaker, and restaurateur. His titles include We’re Still Right, They’re Still Wrong: The Democrats’ Case for 2016; Love & War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home; It’s The Middle Class Stupid!; All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President (with wife Mary Matalin); We’re Right, They’re Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives; And the Horse He Rode In On: The People vs. Kenneth Starr; Buck Up, Suck Up…and Come Back When You Foul Up; Had Enough? A Handbook for Fighting Back; Stickin’: The Case for Loyalty; his children’s book, Lu and the Swamp Ghost; and 2006’s Take it Back, 40 More Years: How the Democrats will Rule the Next Generation.

Along with pollster Stanley Greenberg, Carville founded Democracy Corps, an independent, non-profit polling organization dedicated to making government more responsive to the American people. He now co-hosts the weekly Politicon podcast Politics War Room with journalist Al Hunt.

Carville is also a fellow at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication and lives in New Orleans with his wife, Mary Matalin.

WATCH JAMES CARVILLE IN ACTION