Paul Tewes and Julianna Smoot have teamed to launch a full-service consulting firm that will blend their field and fundraising specialties.
“I think we’re a firm that is going to be one-stop shopping for candidates, causes and issues that want to hire good folks, experienced folks who have been through this before,” Tewes tells C&E. “From communications to digital to grassroots and field, fundraising and development all bases are covered.”
Tewes cemented his reputation as a field guru together with Steve Hildebrand when the two ran a joint consulting firm and worked together on President Obama’s 2008 campaign. Hildebrand has since left consulting to open a coffee shop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Now, Tewes has opted to team with Smoot, a veteran of Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, on the new venture.
Many of the Obama-alum firms have emphasized their digital expertise, but Tewes says their shop will be a blend of traditional and new techniques. “It’s the art and the science that I think we bring,” he says. “We know how to marry up tried and true traditional ways of successful campaigning with new digital technology.”
In addition to Tewes and Smoot, whose fundraising team raised more than $1 billion in 2012, the Washington, D.C.-based firm has about a dozen employees. “We’ve led campaigns at all levels,” Tewes says. “We’re not just a field shop. We’re not just a fundraising shop.”