- The Eleison Group
The Eleison Group is a Democratic consulting firm specializing in connecting clients with the religious communities and people of faith across the nation. Based in Arlington, VA, Eleison works with businesses, political candidates, campaigns, non-profits, and government organizations to authentically reach out to the diverse world of faith and values constituncies in the United States. Eleison's mission statement, list of services and in-depth media interviews and commentary can be found at www.eleisongroup.com.
Founders
Eleison Group was founded in the summer of 2008 by Burns Strider, Eric Sapp, Glenn Rushing, and D. Patrick Lewis.
Burns Strider has worked as Senior Advisor and Director of Faith Outreach to U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton and her Presidential Campaign. Strider has also been an advisor to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Director of Policy for the U. S. House Democratic Caucus, the Director of the U. S. House Democratic Faith Working Group and Rural Working Group, the regional Communications Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Chief of Staff to U. S. Congressman Ronnie Shows. Strider has been named by Religion News Service (RNS) as one of the 12 most influential Democrats in the nation on faith/values issues and politics. Strider has worked on 15 campaigns, directed five of them, and developed a communications plan that was implemented in 35 different races.
Eric Sapp was a Senior Partner at Common Good Strategies (CGS), a democratic political consulting firm, prior to founding Eleison Group. As a part of CGS in 2006, Sapp directed faith outreach and messaging work for the DSCC, Senator Casey, Senator Brown, Governor Strickland, Governor Granholm, Governor Sebelius, Rep. Shuler, and the Michigan, Kansas, and Oregon State Democratic Parties. Every candidate that hired CGS won their respective race. Prior to CGS, Sapp worked for Representative David Price (D-NC) where he handled faith and politics, budget, tax, and homeland security issues and for Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Glenn Rushing most recently served as the Southern Deputy Political Director for the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign, Deputy Political Director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and National Field Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Rushing has worked on over ten campaigns as the Field Director, Campaign Manager, and/or Field Coordinator, including President Clinton's Assistant Deputy Campaign Manager for his 1992 and 1996 elections.
D. Patrick Lewis worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign serving as her Deputy Director for Veterans Outreach and Deputy Director for Catholic Outreach. Prior to founding the Eleison Group Lewis had a private law practice in Alexandria, VA where he specialized in representing plaintiffs in matters of employment discrimination, sexual harassment and civil rights violations. A veteran of the 3d United States Infantry Regiment; the U.S. Army’s famed Old Guard, at Ft. Myer, VA, Lewis is very active in his community and was appointed to the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and to the Fairfax County Civil Service Commission.
Services
Modeling and Strategy
Creating a winning plan for a campaign, business or non-profit including all facets of message, research (micro-targeting), communications (development and delivery), clergy, opinion maker and public opinion relations and grassroots voter/constituent contact.
Execution/Implementation
Putting a winning plan into action (we can develop and implement a plan to meet specific needs):
- Training Candidates, Individuals, Staff, Organizations
- Micro-Targeting
Use our proven techniques to break down the populations in an area by their religious persuasion to better understand the size of different faith groups and their geographic distribution
Extrapolation and Development of Databases of specific members of faith groups and sub-faith groups within defined geographic regions
- Message Development
Framing a Message that Resonates with the Masses
- Grassroots Direct Contact
Clergy Relations, Opinion Maker Relations, Public Opinion Relations, Planning and Implementing Field Operations
- Message Delivery
Including Earned Media, Christian Radio, Denominational Publications, Email/Text Messaging Christian College events, Christian Recording Artists and Concerts
- Issue Management and Campaign Development
Framing issues to avoid easy attacks and highlight values
Choosing specific policies that inoculate against attacks and focus on new issues and frameworks that bring people together and highlight a radically different policy agenda with strong resonance in the faith community
- Pre-Empting and Countering Opposition Attacks
Inoculating against attacks and taking the fight to them using values language and frameworks and issues that focus on common ground and highlight their hypocrisy
- Third Party Validation
Identifying and training clergy and lay leaders to provide support through interviews, Op-eds, letters-to-the-editor, and voter interaction
- Relationship and Partnership Building Between Business, Non-Profit, Political, Government and Faith Communities
- Fundraising Capacity in Niche and Specialty Constituencies and Communities
Our nation is 25% Evangelical, 25% Catholic, 15% mainline protestant, and 10% African American Protestant. We have an active, rich and robust Judeo-Christian heritage. The diversity of our nation includes all religions and beliefs. Political campaigns, business choices, non-profit success, public policy and public opinion on all issues are shaped by faith.
Americans view their world through a prism of faith-based and patriotic values and the team at The Eleison Group has a track-record of proven success in building the relationships, capacity and foundation to connect with constituencies on these core levels.
For initial consultation or questions contact The Eleison Group at info@eleisongroup.com or call 703-638-9272. We look forward to working with you.
Recent News
This article from Religion News Service (RNS) is one of the many stories reported about the formation of the Eleison Group:
Three former advisers for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, including her top religious outreach strategist, have joined a veteran religious consultant to form the Eleison Group.
Burns Strider, a former congressional insider named by RNS as one the top 12 people helping Dems "get religion" in 2006, headed Clinton's outreach to religious voters. By many measures, it was a successful endeavor, with Catholics and many evangelicals turning out in droves for the New York senator. He's also the only native of Grenada County, Mississippi ever to earn the nickname "guru."
Eric Sapp, who helped Democratic candidates -- including Sens. Robert Casey and Sherrod Brown, and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland -- craft messages to appeal to people of faith in the 2006 mid-terms, is also a founding partner at the firm. Eleison will absorb Sapp's former consulting firm Common Good Strategies, with partner Mara Vanderslice now heading the Matthew 25 Network, a PAC helping Obama in religious outreach.
The Eleison Group gets its name from the Greek word found in a prayer common to Protestant and Catholic liturgies, the Kyrie Eleison, which means “Lord, have mercy.”
Strider has an extended interview on the Washington Post's faith blog.
-- end of story
In August 2008, the Eleison Group was responsible for blowing the whistle on Republican Party Presidential Candidate Sen. John McCain's placement of anti-Christ imagery and references in an attack ad entitled "The One". In reference to claims that the ad was insulting to religious people, McCain said, “I don’t think our campaign is negative in the slightest. We think it’s got a lot of humor in it, we’re having fun and enjoying it. … We’ll continue to fight and scrap all the way to November 4.” [http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/01/mccain-web-ad-obama-might-be-the-one-but-maybe-not-ready-to-lead/] Despite McCain's claims of the ad being a joke, Eleison Group noticed strategy when they saw it. They recognized the ad as cleverly-crafted and targeted at evangelical Christians, preying on their fear of the coming Anti-Christ and 'end of times'. Sapp drafted a memo (read here [http://faithfuldemocrats.com/content/view/778/108/] ) detailing how the imagery and language in the ad plays right into the fears of many American Christians. This memo caught the attention of many national secular and religious news outlets and commentators (ie: Time [http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1830590,00.html] , Wall Street Journal [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121816422728523227.html?mod=googlenews_wsj] , and Beliefnet [http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/08/mccain-ad-suggesting-obama-is.html] ).
For more information
For more information about the Eleison Group, including links to interviews, details on their work, and their upcoming goals, visit their website (click here: [http://eleisongroup.com/] ).
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