Former Biden Appointee to Launch Public Affairs Firm With Eye on State, Local Campaigns

A former Biden administration communications pro is launching a new public relations firm with the goal of electing Democrats to state and local office. 

Rachael Shackelford Dussuau, who helped run comms strategy at the Small Business Administration and Transportation Department under former President Joe Biden, told C&E that the Maryland-based firm – dubbed Mission & Story – will focus primarily on public affairs, media training, political communications and video production. 

She said she wants to focus primarily on state and local campaigns. She plans to start with races in Maryland, where she lives, but is open to working anywhere, “especially in swing states.”

“I think we’ve seen over the last decade that state and local really matter,” Dussuau told C&E. “They’re often overlooked. It’s always about federal elections. I want to get into the market of working with local and state, because that’s where people feel the most immediate change.”

Dussuau previously worked as an associate producer for CNN in Washington, D.C. before transitioning to a career in communications and public affairs. That included a stint at Democratic consulting giant SKDK. 

She joined the Biden administration in 2023. Dussuau said that it was after former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in the November presidential election that she turned her attention to launching a firm of her own.

Dussuau said that she wants to imbue her clients’ campaigns with emotion – a tool that she argues Republicans have used to great effect. Democrats, she said, have too often relied on lofty policy arguments to persuade voters.

“The Republicans have figured out how to use emotion to their advantage. And that emotion is oftentimes fear, but it’s still an emotion,” she said. “I think a lot of times, Democrats aren’t using emotion, they’re using policy. And policy doesn’t make people feel anything.” 

“People, I’ve learned, react to what’s in front of their face,” she added. “We have to speak to them directly.”