A Grove City College political science professor who has authored nearly 20 books and has been published in some of the top news outlets in the country is the new editor of The American Spectator.

Paul Kengor, who was already serving as a senior editor and regular contributor to the magazine, was tapped for the post by the magazine and online outlet’s founder and longtime editor-in-chief R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., according to a press release from the college.

The magazine, founded in 1967 in Bloomington, Ind., is one of the country’s oldest conservative publications.

“Few citadels of conservatism waged the battle of ideas quite like ‘The American Spectator’. And none with the wit and panache, the outright hilarity, the fearlessness, and the delightful political incorrectness,” Mr. Kengor said according to the release. “And few publications made the waves, controversy, and history that ‘The American Spectator’ did in the process — particularly the magazine’s riotous exposés on Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 1990s. ‘The American Spectator’ versus the Clintons was an epic showdown.”

Mr. Kengor said he aims to keep the magazine “funny, hilarious, and politically incorrect. With fearless wit, great writers, and great writing.”

Mr. Tyrrell said Mr. Kengor was part of a search team that Mr. Tyrrell had put together to find his successor.

“Paul and I conferred regularly, and then, last spring, while we were going over our list of candidates for the job at my favorite restaurant, a lightbulb went off in my cerebrum. ‘Paul,’ said I, ‘why don’t you take the job?’ Paul took a sip of his wine and looked at me as if to declare, ‘I thought you’d never ask.’ After a three-year search, we had our editor. He was at my elbow all along,” Mr. Tyrrell recalled, according to the press release.

Mr. Tyrrell introduced Kengor as The American Spectator’s new editor at the magazine’s 54th Annual Robert L. Bartley Gala last month.

Mr. Tyrrell said Mr. Kengor knows the magazine well, both as a contributor and as a scholar working on an official history of The American Spectator, and has been a key developer of new and successful contributors though the magazine’s Young Writers Program. 

Mr. Kengor said his only condition in accepting the offer was that “nothing changes for me at Grove City College and the Institute for Faith & Freedom,” where he serves as the conservative think tank’s senior director and chief academic fellow in addition to his teaching duties. Mr. Tyrrell agreed to that.

Grove City College President Paul J. McNulty said Mr. Kengor’s appointment solidifies the college’s longstanding relationship with one of America’s leading conservative outlets and provides an opportunity to expand the institution’s influence in an important space.

“Paul Kengor is a nationally recognized thought leader and advocate for the ideas and values that define conservatism, and which are foundational to Grove City College,” Mr. McNulty said in the statement.

Among Mr. Kengor’s books are “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism,” “Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century,”  and “A Pope and A President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century.”

First Published: November 23, 2022, 6:48 p.m.