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STRATEGIST

Mr. Smick is chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson Smick International, Inc., a leading macroeconomic advisory firm based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985, the firm's clients include some of the world's most successful money managers. The firm's first client was Soros Fund Management. The Financial Times described Mr. Smick as "one of Washington's premier The International Economy Fall 2016insiders" in the field of economic and financial policy.

EDITOR

Mr. Smick is also the founder, editor, and publisher of The International Economy magazine. Launched in 1987, the publication's readership includes many of the world's senior financial policy officials and market strategists.

AUTHOR

New York Times columnist David Brooks described Mr. Smick's first book, The World Is Curved, as "astonishingly prescient." Former President Bill Clinton called the book one of the top three books on the global financial crisis. Translated into dozens of languages, the book received the Gold Medal by the Axiom Business Book Awards as the year's "best book on international business and globalization." The World Is Curved Book CoverThe book sold out in China in two-and-a-half weeks.

Mr. Smick began his career in 1975 in Washington, D.C., as a professional staff member of the United States Senate. In 1979, at the age of twenty-six, he became chief of staff to a member of the congressional leadership.

Mr. Smick has advised both Republican (Ronald Reagan) and Democratic (Bill Bradley) U.S. presidential candidates on economic policy.

Follow The Electables Twitter • Facebook • Instagram

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Founder + CEO

Andre Banks is founder and CEO of A/B Partners, a leading creative practice staffed by people of color, women and queer people bringing to life groundbreaking communications strategies in the #BlackLivesMatter era. A/B Partners is a fully integrated, data-driven agency providing communications strategy, brand positioning, content-driven message and audience testing and multi-channel media outreach. Andre has been leading campaigns for over 20 years and currently serves as the chair of the board at Color Of Change, the largest racial justice organization in the U.S. Prior to starting A/B, Andre was EVP for Social Impact & Philanthropy at Berlin Rosen, a leading national public relations and strategic communications firm. Andre is also co-founder of AllOut, a global organization advocating for the social acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He was also a founding partner at leading social impact agency Purpose.

Ashley Bryant

Principal, A/B Partners

After 12+ years of a unique professional career of brand building, digital marketing, and political strategy—Ashley sits at the intersection of culture, politics, and activism. After serving as the Ohio Digital Director for the 2012 re-election campaign of President Barack Obama, she left the private sector to focus her efforts on building political power in the communities that need it the most. Prior to A/B, Ashley was a VP at 270 Strategies, Federal Digital Director at MoveOn and has advised several non-profits, and campaigns on strategic engagement and political mobilization as an independent consultant encouraging action through integrated online and offline strategies. She is also currently an Advisor to Higher Heights for America and Higher Heights for America PAC, the only political action committee exclusively dedicated to electing more progressive Black women from the federal level to citywide Mayors.

Cornell Belcher is President of Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies, a published author (A Black Man in the White House), political contributor to NBC/MSNBC, and one of the premier strategists in national progressive politics as well as in the rebranding of corporate America. Cornell served as Pollster for the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean making him the first minority to lead in that role for either national Party. He also served on the polling team for both groundbreaking Obama presidential campaigns. Over the years, Cornell has worked with both Senate and House Democrats as Senior Political Advisor to the DSCC in the 2002 cycle and Special Projects Director for the DCCC in the 2000 cycle. Cornell also served as Women VOTE! Coordinator for EMILY’s List in the 1998 cycle, helping to put together communication and GOTV operations targeting women voters all over the country.

Cornell is an experienced hand at campaign politics and has years of expertise in quantitative and qualitative research, message development, and product and behavioral insight. Founding brilliant corners in 2002, he is considered the vanguard for demographic trends among the emerging younger and browner America. In 2008 and 2012, youth and minority voters over-indexed and changed the face of the electorate helping not only President Obama, but progressive candidates and issues up and down the ballot; indeed in 2012 African American voter turnout surpassed that of whites for the first time in history.  Both historic watershed moments that greatly depended on Cornell’s nonconformist contributing work. 

As the pollster for the Democratic National Committee, he was able to ignore beltway criticisms and take the national Party’s research into previously unchartered directions, exploring how best to challenge Republicans’ strengths among voters in supposedly untouchable "red states," particularly "faith" or "values first" voters. Under Governor Dean’s leadership, Cornell helped to construct a savvy framework for the visionary 50 State Strategy that expanded the Democratic footprint on the electoral map and ultimately produced a Democratic realignment. Asked about Cornell’s role, Governor Dean was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that the research conducted by brilliant corners for the DNC was "the best poll [he'd] seen in ten years."

Learn more about Jamal here: http://jamalsimmons.com and follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JamalSimmons

According to her IPPS bio, she "has advised federal and state campaigns and office holders on communications strategy for more than a decade.

Most recently, Lily served as communications director for U.S. Senator Kamala Harris’ campaign for president, where she led communications strategy, including managing a team of over 20 press and research staffers across early primary states, acted as a senior strategist for all critical aspects of the campaign including debate prep, major speeches and campaign launch, and was the principal staffer to the candidate on all major media appearances.

Lily held the same title in Harris’ U.S. Senate office beginning in January 2017, where she oversaw the senator’s national press strategy and was an integral member of the team crafting strategy and preparing the senator for high impact moments including the Kavanaugh hearings, and hearings with Attorneys General Sessions and Barr.

Previously, Lily served as communications director for Hillary Clinton’s successful Iowa caucus campaign and later ran all communications in primary states and in battleground states during the general election. In that role, Lily oversaw the hiring and management of dozens of communications staff and coordinated targeted messaging across the country.

Before joining the Clinton presidential campaign, Lily worked as deputy communications director at the Democratic National Committee, where she led day-to-day operations of the communications department and served as the lead spokesperson for party affairs, including the 2016 convention site selection and the 2016 primary calendar process.

Lily has also worked in various posts on campaigns for governor and senate including U.S. Senator Tim Kaine in Virginia, Governor Ted Strickland in Ohio and State Senator Creigh Deeds in Virginia. She has also been a senior member of three U.S. Senate offices including Kaine, Harris and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

Lily is from Austin, Texas and received a B.A. in Politics from Brandeis University. She has a dog, Harper, and is an avid pie baker."

Questions in this episode include:

Who is leading in NH?
Are you surprised there isn't more fighting between the candidates yet?
Who has the best NH ground game?
Does winning in Iowa help win the New Hampshire Primary?
What advice would you give a candidate polling in the single digits?
What's your best New Hampshire Primary memory?

On this episode of.. The Electables.

Tony Carrk is a campaign research rockstar after leading the teams for Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. He gives us a behind the scenes look at what it takes to put together a research summary on a candidate, how research effects other departments, and he shares a few stories from real campaigns.

He shares some stories from the campaign trail, what the upcoming candidates need to do to set themselves apart from the pack, and a few predictions about who has the highest likelihood of earning the Democratic nomination.

Nayak is Senior Vice President, Center for American Progress and Executive Director of the CAP Action Fund. He oversees day-to-day management of the Action Fund and helps create new programs and projects that will help the organization fulfill its mission.

Nayak has more than 15 years of experience in advocacy and elections with several organizations. Most recently, Nayak served as the director of opinion research for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, where he oversaw all the campaign’s message research. Prior to that, he worked for eight years at the League of Conservation Voters, where among several roles, he served as senior vice president for campaigns, overseeing all the organization’s electoral work. He also served as the deputy director for the Clean Energy Works campaign, a national multimillion-dollar effort to pass comprehensive climate legislation in 2009–2010.

In addition to his advocacy experience, Nayak worked as a donor adviser at Corridor Partners, where he provided strategic guidance to donors on their advocacy and electoral investments.

Nayak has appeared on numerous television programs and in numerous publications, including CNN’s “Crossfire” and MSNBC’s “Hardball.” In 2013, he was named one of Politico’s “50 Politicos to Watch.” He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children.

Nayak is Senior Vice President, Center for American Progress and Executive Director of the CAP Action Fund. He oversees day-to-day management of the Action Fund and helps create new programs and projects that will help the organization fulfill its mission.

Nayak has more than 15 years of experience in advocacy and elections with several organizations. Most recently, Nayak served as the director of opinion research for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, where he oversaw all the campaign’s message research. Prior to that, he worked for eight years at the League of Conservation Voters, where among several roles, he served as senior vice president for campaigns, overseeing all the organization’s electoral work. He also served as the deputy director for the Clean Energy Works campaign, a national multimillion-dollar effort to pass comprehensive climate legislation in 2009–2010.

In addition to his advocacy experience, Nayak worked as a donor adviser at Corridor Partners, where he provided strategic guidance to donors on their advocacy and electoral investments.

Nayak has appeared on numerous television programs and in numerous publications, including CNN’s “Crossfire” and MSNBC’s “Hardball.” In 2013, he was named one of Politico’s “50 Politicos to Watch.” He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children.

With such a large field interested in running, getting the announcement right can increase your stock or leave you playing catch up right out the gate. Tune in to get the insider's take on what these campaigns are considering before they announce.