| John Brabender | |
|---|---|
| Residence | Leesburg, Virginia[1] |
| Education | Gannon University Cleveland State University |
| Occupation | political consultant, professor, |
| Home town | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
John Brabender is a prominent Republican political consultant.
He earned a degree in from Gannon University and an MBA from Cleveland State University.[2]
He is the managing partner and Chief Creative Officer of BrabenderCox, a national political consulting and advertising firm.[2] He has served as a campaign and advertising consultant for campaigns in nearly every state, including Tom Coburn, David Vitter, Rick Santorum, Linda Lingle, Tom Corbett, and for the 2008 Giuliani presidential campaign.[1] He has also worked for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their attempt to gain public funding for Heinz Field in the mid-1990s and for the Pittsburgh Penguins.[3]
He has appeared as a guest on The Today Show, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN's Inside Politics, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Talk of the Nation, and CNN.[2]
He was an adjunct professor at the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University, teaching courses on advertising and the media.[2]
He was named one of the "Rising Stars of 1996" by Campaigns & Elections, after winning 18 of 21 races in the 1994 election cycle, including the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania where Rick Santorum upset Harris Wofford.[4] He helped "mastermind" Tom Ridge's gubernatorial victories in 1994 and 1998.[5]
He was named to the 2002 and 2003 PoliticsPA "Sy Snyder's Power 50" of influential people in Pennsylvania politics.[6][7] He was named to the PoliticsPA list of "Republican Dream Team" political consultants.[8] In 2010, he was named one of the "Top 10 Republicans" in Pennsylvania by Politics Magazine, where he was called "the go-to consultant for many [Pennsylvania] statewide candidates."[5]
In 2009, he launched Zolitics, a "political entertainment network" with other political consultants, including Leslie Gromis-Baker.[9]