Michael Stephen Steele (born October 19, 1958) is an American politician, serving since January 2009 as the first African American chairman of the Republican National Committee. From 2003 to 2007, he was the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Maryland (Lieutenant Governor of Maryland), the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland. During his time as Lieutenant Governor, he chaired the Minority Business Enterprise taskforce, actively promoting an expansion of affirmative action in the corporate world.

In 2006, Steele made an unsuccessful run (United States Senate election in Maryland, 2006) for the U.S. Senate (United States Senate), losing to Democrat Ben Cardin. He then served as chairman of GOPAC, the political training organization of the Republican party, was a political commentator (Pundit (expert)) for Fox News and a partner at the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf before making his bid for RNC Chairman. He co-founded the Republican Leadership Council, a "fiscally conservative (fiscal conservatism) and socially inclusive" political action committee, in 1993.