You know you’ve been a part of something great when you wake up to headlines and commentary like this the day after an election:
“…potentially the greatest Democratic victory in the midterms.”
– Washington Post talking about Scott Walker’s defeat.
“The 2018 Senate race that likely bothers Trump the most”
– MSNBC opining on Jon Tester’s victory in Montana .
and on the lighter side…
“The most celebrated victory over a white Walker since Game of Thrones”
– Stephen Colbert on Tony Evers’ victory
At Strother Nuckels Strategies we were very proud to have helped our clients on many incredible campaigns across the country. That included serving as the media consultant to Tony Evers’ stunning upset of Scott Walker and running the UA media efforts to help re-elect Jon Tester to the U.S. Senate in Montana.
In U.S. Senate campaigns, in addition to Tester’s win in Montana (ie), we helped win races in West Virginia for Joe Manchin (ie), Arizona for Kyrsten Sinema (ie), and Nevada for Jacky Rosen (ie). And, we were honored to run targeted digital ie programs to help win governors races in Michigan for Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesota for Tim Walz, and Colorado for Jared Polis.
We helped flip congressional seats from red to blue with Abby Finkenauer for Congress in IA-1 (ie).
And, we helped return the amazing Betty McCollum to Congress in MN-4.
We’re proud to help elect Democrats up and down the ticket. That included being a part of re-electing all-star Maggie Toulouse Oliver as New Mexico’s Secretary of State and helping Sarah Godlewski become Wisconsin’s next State Treasurer.
In Maryland we helped a coalition of labor – including LiUNA and the BTU – elect Marc Elrich as Montgomery County Executive and John Olszewski Jr for Baltimore County Executive… both former teachers.
We did the winning media for the Colorado Yes on 7G ballot measure to fund flood prevention, a schools ballot measure in Miami to increase teacher pay and improve school safety, 18 successful marijuana ballot measures in Wisconsin, and earlier this year we helped defeat a statewide ballot measure in Wisconsin to eliminate the State Treasurer.
You can watch some of our 2018 ads here.
None of these victories could have been possible without great candidates and the great teams on the ground.
In particular, the Tony Evers campaign was filled with all-stars. Maggie Gau did an amazing job as Campaign Manager, the always-on-message Sam Lau kept the coms shop moving like a freight train every day, Christopher James Mills raised the funds we needed to get our message out there, Dept. Campaign Manager Cassi Fenili never dropped the ball, Britt Cudaback handled day-to-day press with aplomb, Brendan Cohen crushed it as the digital director, Meagan Mahaffey was laser-focused on making the most of every hour of every day, and Jeff Pertl with his policy expertise and handling of our last minute grandiloquent shoot requests (thanks to Jorna too). No list would be complete without acknowledging polling mastermind Mark Mellman and Dave Tollaksen at the Mellman Group for their roadmap and accuracy, Trish Hoppey at the Pivot Group, Teresa Villmain, and Tom Russell and all those at the DGA.
We also want to give shout outs for other races to the outstanding work of Howard Edelson, Russ Breckenridge, Heather Brewer, Steve Welchert, Kerry Schumann, Bill Harper, Michael Ambler, Julie Benkoske, Jesse Hunt.
Now, on to 2020.
– Ben and Dane