May Mailman | Follow the Influence Encyclopedia

Personal details

Names used publicly: May Mailman; May Davis Mailman; Sylvia “May” Mailman (2025 federal financial disclosure)
Raised: Kansas (reported)
Education: University of Kansas, B.S. in journalism; Harvard Law School, J.D.
Spouse: Not independently established by the reviewed sources
Children: Three children were reported in a November 2025 Boston Globe interview
Previous public posts: White House adviser (2017–2021), deputy solicitor general of Ohio (2021–2023), White House deputy assistant to the president and senior policy strategist (January–August 2025)
Nonprofit and legal roles: Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections vice president (2023); Independent Women's Law Center director (2024, resumed August 2025)
2026 status: Temporarily assisting White House chief of staff Stephen Miller with staffing and operations (reported November 2026)

May Mailman is an American attorney and policy adviser who has worked in government, public-policy and institutional legal roles. The timeline below distinguishes dates of public positions, institutional affiliation and third-party reporting.

Background and education

May Davis Mailman, identified as Sylvia “May” Mailman in federal financial-disclosure records, is an American attorney and legal-policy adviser. In published professional biographies she reports a Bachelor of Science in journalism from the University of Kansas and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where she served as president of its Federalist Society student chapter. She worked as a Teach for America sixth-grade teacher in Kansas City and later practiced litigation in Denver.^[1]^[2]^[3]

A 2025 interview describes her Kansas upbringing. She has described her family background publicly; an independently authenticated birth date and spouse's identity were not established from the reviewed sources.^[4]

First Trump administration and Ohio legal career

Mailman served as a legal and policy adviser in President Donald Trump's first administration, working on health care, immigration, social-policy questions and White House Chief of Staff and Staff Secretary operations. Her professional biographies place her in the State of Ohio solicitor general's office after that administration, serving as deputy solicitor general from February 2021 through March 2023. Her work included state legal challenges to federal agency policies, including litigation about the federal workplace COVID-19 vaccine-or-test requirement.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Election litigation and Independent Women's Law Center

On September 11, 2023, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), an election-law advocacy organization, announced Mailman as its vice president for legal, strategy and communications. Federal ethics disclosures identify that position from March through December 2023, although the organization's public announcement was issued in September. Those are not identical date claims and the exact start should be understood in light of the disclosure and announcement.^[3]^[5]

Mailman was previously a legal fellow with Independent Women's Forum and, on January 3, 2024, was named director of its Independent Women's Law Center (IWLC). She worked on sex-based legal definitions, Title IX, and women's athletics litigation and policy campaigns. In August 2025 the organization announced her return to IWLC following White House service, describing work on legal and regulatory advocacy. The nonprofit post and her separate 2026 consulting affiliation are distinct from government employment.^[1]^[6]^[7]

Second Trump administration, January–August 2025

Mailman joined the second Trump White House in January 2025 as deputy assistant to the president and senior policy strategist. Her financial disclosure identifies the office as senior policy strategist and lists former outside positions. As a policy adviser, she worked on executive-order language and implementation, including the January 20, 2025 executive order defining sex for federal policy. The White House's order is a policy document; outside reporting and her organizational biography attribute a role in developing related directives to Mailman, not sole authorship of the entire administration agenda.^[3]^[7]^[8]^[9]

In 2025 Mailman played a leading role in White House negotiations and disputes involving Harvard and other universities about funding, federal compliance, campus policies and civil-rights enforcement. Reporting in July and November 2025 describes her as a principal White House contact in talks and executive-order drafting. These were institutional negotiations involving multiple officials and agencies, not decisions assigned to her alone.^[4]^[10]

November 2026 temporary return to the White House

After Stephen Miller became White House chief of staff on November 9, 2026, Axios reported that Mailman would temporarily return to the West Wing to assist in operations and staffing. A November 14 Washington Post report said that she had previously helped Miller draft transition executive orders and was helping identify potential executive initiatives. The reports describe a temporary assisting role, not appointment to an independently specified permanent position or Senate-confirmed office.^[11]^[12]^[13]

Her documented connections include Miller's policy team, the first and second Trump White Houses, Harvard Law School's Federalist Society chapter, Ohio legal practice, RITE, and IWLC. RITE, IWLC and Mailman's own government-consulting work are separate institutions; one affiliation does not establish policy control or financial transfers between them.^[1]^[3]^[11]^[13]

Family and public record

A Boston Globe podcast reported in November 2025 that Mailman had left White House service before the birth of her third child. Her husband's name and further private family details have not been verified in the reliable public records reviewed, so no name or birth date is inferred.^[4]

Disclosed 2024 consulting and compensation

Mailman's signed 2025 Office of Government Ethics Form 278e lists consulting engagements with the Concord Fund from February through December 2024 and with Trump–Vance Transition, Inc. from November 2024 through January 2025. Her reported consulting income was $32,500 from the Concord Fund and $26,322 from the transition organization. The Concord Fund operated under the former Judicial Crisis Network name; it is a distinct organization from the separately incorporated 85 Fund. The disclosure identifies the payer, engagement and reporting period, not the precise consulting assignments or a connection between the two payments. Neither payment should be confused with a contribution by a donor to Mailman or with compensation for federal employment.^[14]

The same 2025 disclosure identifies her outside roles with Independent Women's Forum (2024), Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (2023), and the Ohio Attorney General (2021–2023). It separately reports $7,500 in salary from RBG PAC for treasurer services; no identity with other organizations is assumed from the initials.^[14]

Documented connections

Named professional and government relationships are source-qualified and dated. Shared offices alone do not prove coordination, direction, or misconduct.

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References

Research compiled through November 14, 2026. The most recent staffing details are attributed to dated reporting and may change.