Stephen J. Yates


Stephen J. Yates was Deputy National Security Adviser to the Vice President to Dick Cheney from 2001 to 2005 and a past Idaho Republican Party Chair from 2014 to 2017. He is the CEO of consulting firm DC International Advisory, in that role since 2006.

Personal, early life, and education

Yates attended Brigham Young University and served as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan from 1987 to 1989.
He then studied at University of Maryland, College Park, Johns Hopkins University and Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
Yates is married to Diana Kilbourn, which they have adopted two children.

Career

Yates worked for the National Security Agency under the United States Department of Defense; he served as a liaison officer to the Department of Commerce.
Yates was Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation from 1996 to 2001.
Yates served as Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President to Dick Cheney from 2001 to 2005.
From 2005 to 2006, Yates served has a lobbyist and vice president of the global affairs practice for Barbour Griffith & Rogers, who's clients included; Taiwan, The Indonesian National Shipowners' Association, Moneygram International, Lebanon's National Dialogue Party, The Republic of India British Nuclear Fuels, Plc..
Yates is the Founder and CEO at DC International Advisory since 2006, a consulting firm advises on managing international political risk and business opportunity.
Yates is Professor of the Practice with the International Business Program at Boise State University.
Yates is currently a distinguished Fellow at the Hamilton Foundation.

Political career

Yates advised the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign's Asia team.
He served in the 2008 Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign as a senior Asia adviser.
Yates served in the 2012 Newt Gingrich presidential campaign as a part of the National Security Advisory team and director.
Yates briefly ran for Idaho Republican Party national committeeman at the July 2020 convention.

Idaho Republican Party chair

Yates was elected chairman of the Idaho Republican Party in August 2014 and was re elected in 2016; he stepped down on April 24, 2017 to pursue the 2018 Idaho lieutenant gubernatorial primary election.
Yates had David Johnston and Lyndel Strong as executive directors.

Idaho Lieutenant Governor primary election, 2018

Yates sought and lost narrowly the 2018 Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Idaho to Janice McGeachin.
Days before the election, a flyer attacking Yates was mailed to Idaho voters, claiming hidden foreign influence and conflating support from democratic Taiwan with that from communist China. The flyer mailing was sourced to a PAC funded by three political opponents from Yates' past.

Election history