It never bothered Benjamin Andrew Krauss in the slightest if Shana Gabrielle Mansbach took a call from Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, while they were out to dinner, and then ran off to draft a letter or a speech.
“That happened not infrequently,” said Mr. Krauss, 40, who knew the situation all too well. “This is the nature of what we do.”
The two Washington speechwriters had never met or heard of each other before connecting on the Hinge dating app in July 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“He was in his bubble, I was in mine,” said Ms. Mansbach, 31. “He has done amazing work mainly in the campaign space. I do government stuff.”
Until 2022, Ms. Mansbach had worked as the senior communications adviser and director of speechwriting for Ms. Pelosi. She is now a speechwriter and a senior adviser to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.
“We were mutually intrigued,” said Ms. Mansbach, who graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
