Nate Silver, the well-known statistician and election predictor, has not yet disclosed any information about his spouse despite being openly gay and a strong advocate for same-sex marriage rights.
American statistician, journalist, and poker player Nathaniel Read Silver was born on January 13, 1978.
He is the creator of FiveThirtyEight, where he served as editor-in-chief until May 2023.
Similarly, Silver has been posting on his Substack blog, Silver Bulletin, since leaving FiveThirtyEight.
Nate Silver’s Steadfast Support for Same-Sex Marriage
Nate Silver has openly acknowledged his homosexuality and has spoken about it in a number of settings but didn’t disclose his spouse.
He stated that feeling like an outsider as a child was influenced by his upbringing as a gay man affects his outlook.
In a 2012 interview, he said:
“If you are raised as a gay person, you are implying that there are beliefs held by most people that I disagree with.”
Silver wrote about his sexual orientation while growing up in East Lansing for an article concerning the Obergefell v. Hodges verdict from the Supreme Court.#
On the day of the announcement, he supported same-sex marriage. Also, he mentioned that public opinion is changing quickly, noticeably in a few decades, and impacting the current generation.
Mr. Silver admitted:
“I also have a personal bias toward believing that the case for gay marriage is stronger. I’ve started to notice it a little bit, although so far it seems like I’m more a subject of geek affection than gay affection.”
Nate Silver’s Enduring Influence in the Journalism and Statistics Fields
From 2000 until 2004, he began his career at KPMG as a transfer price consultant.
While working at KPMG, Mr. Silver created the PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm) system, which predicts Major League Baseball players’ performance and career progression.
From 2003 to 2009, Mr. Silver was Baseball Prospectus’s Executive Vice-President and Managing Partner.
In 2004, Nate left KPMG to pursue a career in poker and statistics. He also began writing for Baseball Prospectus, which helped increase his exposure within the baseball analytics community.
He published in excess of 200 baseball-related articles demonstrating his projections and statistical insights.
In 2007, he started using the alias “Poblano” to publish assessments and forecasts about the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
Afterward, in March 2008, he launched his own blog and website, FiveThirtyEight.com, emphasizing on the statistical study of science, sports, etc.
Nate garnered worldwide recognition for predicting the outcome of the 2008 presidential primaries and the winner in 49 of 50 states.
In 2010, he obtained a license to operate FiveThirtyEight.com and worked as a syndicated columnist for The New York Times.
The New York Times bestseller “The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail – But Some Don’t,” his book, released in 2012.
He was listed as one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Influential People in Business and Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2009. In 2013, Nate joined ESPN as the show’s chief editor of FiveThirtyEight.
Moreover, he correctly predicted Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election chances at 28.6%, higher than many other forecasting competitors.
However, he left his position as FiveThirtyEight’s chief editor in May 2023 to work on other endeavors.
Additional Information
- He completed his studies at the University of Chicago, where he received an economics degree.
- Nate Silver is the son of community organizer Sally Silver (née Thrun) and former Michigan State University political science department head Brian David Silver.
- Silver is the great-nephew of Caswell and Leon Silver, two geologists.
