Drew was born in Waco, Texas, on March 22, 1946 to Judge Andrew Gant Ponder Sr. and Maurelle Pickens Ponder and grew up in Newport, Arkansas. He graduated from Kemper Military School in 1964 and from Arkansas College in 1968. While in college, he spent a year abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, a formative experience. After graduation, Drew enlisted in the army and was stationed in Berlin, Germany, where he was the editor of a military newspaper. He married Vicki Lanier in 1972 and moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a speechwriter for John McClellan among other Arkansas politicians. After that, Drew briefly attended law school at the University of Arkansas, studied under Bill Clinton, and later worked on Clinton’s first congressional campaign.
