Ben Nuckels is one of the founding partners of Strother Nuckels Strategies. Nuckels brings extensive experience in message development, ad making, voter targeting, digital communication, and media strategy. He is a veteran of local, state, national, and international campaigns.
AdWeek described Nuckels’ work as, “emotional” and “tugs at the heartstrings.” Huffington Post labeled some of his work, “provocative.” Other news outlets labeled his work as “smoothly produced,” “memorable,” and “dominating national headlines.”
In 2018, Nuckels was the media consultant for Tony Evers for Governor of Wisconsin. The Washington Post named Evers’ stunning victory over Scott Walker “potentially the greatest Democratic victory of the midterms.” Nuckels reprised his role in 2022 for Evers’ successful re-election effort that one news outlet pointed out “defied history,” POLITICO noted Evers was, “the first Democratic governor since 1962 to win in Wisconsin in a midterm election with a Democratic president.” A year later he helped elect Justice Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in what the New York Times dubbed “the most important election of 2023.”
Nuckels was named to the first national “40 Under 40″ by the American Association of Political Consultants as one of the “40 best and brightest campaign professionals in the country.” In 2011, he was named a “Rising Star” of politics by Campaigns and Elections Magazine.
Nuckels led the public affairs advertising efforts for Airbnb in North America, which was awarded the special Pollie Award for “Best Public Affairs Campaign” in America. He has led successful independent expenditure (IE) media efforts to help elect President Joe Biden in 2020, IE’s for Senate in Arizona, Georgia, Alaska, Colorado, and IE’s for Governor in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. Brooke Anderson of Uber has described Nuckels as “one of the best in the business in understanding the nexus where message meets targeting and data.”
Before launching Strother Nuckels Strategies, Nuckels was the Senior Executive Vice President of Joe Slade White & Company. With that team, Nuckels helped elect long-shot write-in candidate Mike Duggan Mayor of Detroit, helped Uber win hard-fought public affairs battles, and helped defeat David Beckham’s Miami soccer stadium proposal. Nuckels also helped elect Maggie Hassan Governor of New Hampshire, and helped re-elect Congresswoman Betty McCollum and Congresswoman Niki Tsongas.
Nuckels has worked on successful ballot initiatives nationwide on important issues such as energy, medical marijuana, transportation, the sharing economy, tax reform, and more.
Before consulting, Nuckels was the successful Campaign Manager and strategist to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s “impossible” victory that RealClearPolitics.com called one of the top upsets in the country; famed prognosticator Nate Silver predicted Quinn had only a “9.4% chance of winning.”
Nuckels served as Chief of Staff to Wisconsin Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton after managing her successful re-election campaign. He has also worked as the Midwest Campaigns Director for the League of Conservation Voters, a consultant to Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, and staff to former presidential candidate and Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
“Ben Nuckels knows how to reach voters with messages and creative ads that cut through the noise. I wouldn’t have won my re-election – or my first – without his creativity and skilled advice.” – Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers