By this time in the election cycle, using the TV remote’s fast-forward feature to breeze past the latest political ad comes in quite handy. But with the final push before Election Day on Nov. 5, viewers probably haven’t seen the real surge of advertising quite yet.
While candidates win campaigns, their success often hinges on hiring a campaign pro to help polish their image, focus their message, and, more often than not, unearth and publicize negative features about the opposing candidate. The nasty ads have spurred broad public disillusionment with the election process, but the spots wouldn’t be running nonstop if they weren’t effective.
Of note, a dated Pew Research Center study found that 98% of political consultants consider it “clearly unethical” to make factually untrue statements. The remaining 2% called it questionable.
About $10.7 billion is likely to be spent in the 2023-24 election cycle, the Ad Impact research firm projected in July. That incudes $362 million in North Carolina for federal and state races.
Here’s a look at eight individuals working behind the scenes in campaigns that have helped shape the political landscape in the Old North State during this cycle. They represent both political factions and include some new faces, joining such veteran North Carolina advisers as Brad Crone, Jonathan Felts and Paul Shumaker.
Josh Stein is relying on veteran Raleigh political consultant Morgan Jackson to lead the attorney general’s gubernatorial campaign against Mark Robinson. But the campaign manager title is held by Jeff Allen, a political operative who declined an interview request. Several Raleigh consultants and Democrat lawmakers said they knew nothing about Allen. Media reports say he managed a losing congressional campaign in Montana in 2020. Allen has overseen fundraising of about $33 million for Stein, giving him a big advantage over his Republican opponent.
Consultant Aisha Dew estimates she has worked with 200 political campaigns over the past dozen years, including helping Vi Lyles become Charlotte’s first Black female mayor. As a political director for Higher Heights for America PAC and owner of The Dew Group, she has helped secure wins for more than 100 candidates. She’s on this year’s ballot, running unopposed for a Mecklenburg County House seat that the late Kelly Alexander had held since 2008. Dew is a Charlotte native and Salem University graduate.
As chair of the N.C. Democratic Party, Anderson Clayton, 26, has led the party’s attempts to bounce back after the party suffered net losses of two Senate and four House seats in the 2022 elections. As a result, Republicans hold supermajorities in both bodies. After ousting party chair Bobbie Richardson, a former state legislator, the Roxboro native has focused on raising money and boosting the party’s profile in Republican-leaning areas. She has a big social media presence, aided by 43,193 X/Twitter followers.
Jim Blaine has been a Republican power player for years, including as Senate leader Phil Berger’s chief of staff from 2010 to 2018. He and another former Berger aide, Ray Martin, then started The Differentiators, a political consultancy that has worked for many businesses and political candidates, including state treasurer hopeful Brad Briner and Fayetteville lawyer Dave Boliek, who is running for state auditor. (Like Boliek, Blaine is a member of the UNC Board of Trustees.) His father, Jim, was CEO of State Employees’ Credit Union from 1979 to 2016.
Bear Creek native Chase Gaines is building a serious resume in his early 20s. He ran Michael Whatley’s successful effort to remain the state GOP party chair in 2023; Whatley now leads the national Republican party with Lara Trump. Gaines works as U.S. Sen. Ted Budd’s political director on a contract basis, and this spring managed Addison McDowell’s successful campaign for the GOP nomination for the 6th District U.S. House seat.
Ches McDowell is a 2014 graduate of Campbell University School of Law who formed his own firm last December after working for the Kilpatrick Stockton law firm for eight years. He also worked on Senate leader Phil Berger’s staff from 2009-11. The influential lobbyist helped lead the successful push for sports betting legalization. He added to his laurels by helping convince former President Donald Trump to endorse the successful Republican primary campaign of his younger brother, Addison McDowell. The 2016 graduate of UNC Charlotte faces no opposition in November.
Conrad Pogorzelski helped orchestrate Mark Robinson’s election to the lieutenant governor’s office in 2020, and at age 25 became his chief of staff, the youngest person to ever hold that post. Now he’s leading Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign through his Endgame Consulting firm that he started last year with Jason Williams. Pogorzelski’s family has been involved in Gaston County politics for decades, but says he got interested when he became a Christian while in high school. The UNC Charlotte graduate now lives in Clayton.
Jason Williams spent one term on the Gaston County commission from 2012-16, but now works as a campaign manager and consultant. After leading Mark Harris’ ill-fated 2018 congressional campaign, he started the N.C. Faith & Freedom Coalition a year later, when it had a $53,000 budget. The group will spend $2 million this year reaching out to the state’s estimated 1.8 million evangelical Christian voters, he says. Volunteers will knock on 500,000 doors, while 2 million direct-mail pieces are planned. The coalition’s annual Salt & Light gathering in late September was expected to attract 2,000 people to McDowell County, including former HUD Secretary Ben Carson and Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice. ■