Mary Katharine Ham is a nationally prominent journalist, author and speaker. As a CNN Political Commentator, she brings conservative perspective mixed with a humorous take on politics and pop culture. In an article about Ham, CNN president Jeff Zucker said, “She’s an honest broker, and she’s got likability and confidence.”

In 2016, she moderated an ABC News 2016 GOP presidential primary debate in New Hampshire, which featured nine candidates. Ham is the co-author of "End of Discussion: How the Left's Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun)”

She is a popular speaker for young audiences interested in free speech and new media. She taught a course on free-speech issues as a Harvard Institute of Politics Visiting Fellow in the Kennedy School of Government in 2017, and has also taught on this topic at The University of Chicago and Georgetown University.

Ham was previously a Fox News contributor from 2007-2015, most often seen as a libertarian foil to Bill O’Reilly’s populism on his prime-time show.

She is a fourth generation journalist with roots in print and new media. Ham has written for USA Today, The Atlantic, and The Weekly Standard, and appears periodically on NPR’s "All Things Considered."

Ham has also become a powerful speaker on faith and resilience since her 34-year old husband, Jake, died in a bike accident in 2015. Ham was seven months pregnant at the time and had a 2-year-old daughter at home. She remarried the last weekend before the pandemic shut most of the world down in 2020, thus making the newlyweds extremely married with two children for the past year. She talks about her strong faith, optimism and fortitude as tools to get through — and return to living with gratitude and joy —- even in the most tragic circumstances.

Ham is a die hard UGA football fan, an athlete who relishes marathons and mountain-climbing, and a proud Southern gal who is close to her family in North Carolina. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and a very energetic Belgian Malinois named Scout in Virginia.

Two Fathers and a Wedding

"I knew I was in trouble when I saw the groom’s eyes light up. Jake’s father, too, is a power-gardener and had trained him since boyhood to tame an acre of tall Tennessee grass into the clean lines of Comiskey."

We Shall Overshare

"Sure, I could settle for a routine in which only traditional social skills are required, but where's the fun in that? I long ago mastered not talking with my mouth full and placing a napkin in my lap, and still felt the world needed people like me--pioneers of electronic propriety--to make tough choices."

Thrift in the Age of Twitter

"I’m in a new stage of life—one in which I buy large quantities of laundry detergent in the same style of countertop dispenser in which I used to purchase large quantities of wine...I have always been a natural cheapskate, but never an industrious one."