Andy Gussert

Andy Gussert is National Director of Citizen’s Trade Campaign, a coalition of environmental, labor, consumer, family farm, religious, and other civil society groups founded in 1992 during the fight over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). CTC is a leading advocacy vehicle in the debate over free or fair trade agreements, advocating that international investment is not an end in itself, but instead must be viewed as a means for achieving other societal goals such as economic justice, human rights, healthy communities, and a sound environment.

Andy Gussert has worked in progressive politics for over 17 years, starting with service to Senator Paul Simon in 1990. He most recently served as President and CEO of AFT-Wisconsin, a statewide labor federation serving 550 job classifications including teachers, professors, lawyers, lunch ladies, bus drivers and a plethora of public servants. A veteran of two dozen political campaigns spanning 15 years, Gussert wrote Pollie Award winning television ads, and managed political campaigns from statewide office to city council.

As Chair of the State Senate Democratic Committee in 2000, he helped bring Senate Democrats to a majority of 18 seats for the first time in 8 years. During the 1990’s, he served as Caucus Director for a government research agency, as manager for an Attorney General’s race and as a research consultant on the Clinton Presidential Campaign. In 1994, Gussert posted one of the first eight websites in the country for a major political candidate.

Gussert also cultivated ALICE, an internet information clearinghouse set up to promote high road policies for workers at www.highroadnow.org. He helped research and co-write the ALEC expose found at ALEC Watch, a website started while he served as national director for the State Environmental Resource Center found at www.serconline.org

Andy Gussert was born January 14 1969 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up in Clintonville, Wisconsin. He graduated from Clintonville Senior High School in 1987, and went on to earn has a B.A. in Philosophy and Government from Lawrence University, and a J.D. from University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, Florida.

Gussert’s work has been covered in The Nation, The American Prospect, Governing Magazine, State Legislatures, Stateline, Wispolitics, Demos, American Teacher, Fighting Bob, and other progressive publications.