Barry Bennett (Virginia)

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Barry Bennett
Basic facts
Organization:	Avenue Strategies
Role:	Co-founder
Location:	Washington, D.C.
Affiliation:	Republican
Website:	Official website
Prior Experience •Rob Portman 1993 U.S. House •Jean Schmidt 2005 U.S. House •Rick Perry 2012 presidential •Liz Cheney 2014 U.S. Senate •Ben Carson 2016 presidential[[ •Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016|Donald Trump 2016 presidential]]

Barry Bennett is a Republican political consultant at his own firm, Avenue Strategies. As an advisor for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Bennett's chief role was to lead delegate strategy ahead of the Republican National Convention. A longtime Republican strategist, Bennett is best known for his work in Ohio with U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R) and U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R).

Bennett joined the Trump campaign as an informal advisor in early 2016 and began working on delegate strategy starting in March.

He previously managed Ben Carson's 2016 presidential campaign before resigning over differences with Carson's business manager, Armstrong Williams.

His long career in politics includes work for Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio). He is a founder of Avenue Strategies and is a partner of Vox Populi Polling.

Career

Early career

In 1993, Rob Portman ran for the U.S. House in a special election after then-Rep. Bill Gradison stepped down to become president of the Health Insurance Association of America. Bennett served on Portman's campaign and then assembled Portman's staff in Washington after his election. After Rob Portman resigned his position in the House, a special election was held. Jean Schmidt won the seat and Bennett served as her chief of staff beginning in 2005. Bennett left his position in 2010 to launch a 501(c)(4) organization, Alliance for America's Future (AAF).

Alliance for America's Future

In 2010, Bennett founded Alliance for America's Future with Mary Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Bennett's partner at BKM Strategies. The group was formed to "advance limited government and conservative principles around the country." According to the Nevada News Bureau, the group was established "to help Republicans in key races in key states such as Ohio, Arkansas and Nevada."

As a 501(c)(4), AAF could engage in issue advocacy but not express advocacy for a particular candidate. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, "AAF ran hundreds of ads in Nevada supporting Brian Sandoval for governor. State election officials demanded that the group register as a PAC — meaning that AAF would have to disclose its donors. AAF refused, so the case went to court." In 2010, Nevada "Secretary of State Ross Miller sought and received a temporary restraining order against the group, barring them from airing any more commercials" until the group registered as a PAC. In 2014, the group reached a settlement in Nevada court: "AAF was required to to [sic] register as a political committee in Nevada and disclose the donors that funded its 2010 spending in the state."

Presidential election, 2012

Rick Perry super PAC
The largest super PAC devoted to the 2012 presidential campaign of Rick Perry was Make Us Great Again PAC, which took in $5,315,174 in 2012.. Bennett served as a senior advisor to the PAC from its formation in July 2011. Bennett left the group in October 2011.

Mitt Romney documentary
In the 2012 Republican presidential primary elections, the Newt Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future funded a 27-minute documentary, "When Mitt Romney Came to Town," produced by Barry Bennett. Bennett told The New York Times of his intentions with the documentary's criticism of Romney: "Republicans need to know this story before we nominate this guy." At the time, Huffington Post reported: "Bennett insists that he paid $40,000 out of his own pocket to make the documentary after reviewing opposition research gathered by Romney's opponents in the 2008 presidential campaign." According to National Review, the documentary was picked up by Newt Gingrich's group because it "happened to be available" after the Perry super PAC said they were not interested. The pro-Perry group's executive director, Scott Rials, told Reuters, "Make Us Great Again had nothing to do with this video in any way."

Liz Cheney super PAC

In 2014, Bennett founded a super PAC in support of Liz Cheney, who was running for the U.S. Senate in Wyoming. Cowboy PAC's first memo stated: "The first objective of Cowboy PAC is to run advertising designed to increase Liz Cheney’s name awareness and approval rating." According to Open Secrets, the PAC had raised $38,500 before Cheney dropped out of the race in January 2014, due to "family health issues."

Rob Portman super PAC

In February 2015, Bennett founded a super PAC, Fighting for Ohio, in support of Rob Portman's 2016 U.S. Senate re-election campaign. At the time, Bennett claimed that the group planned to raise "$5 million to $10 million for Portman's re-election." Bennett claimed that a good portion of the PAC's funds would go to social media because "money can be better targeted toward intended audiences there." Bennett left the PAC in March to join Carson's presidential campaign exploratory committee.

Presidential election, 2016

Bennett began the 2016 election cycle with Ben Carson's presidential campaign, first as the head of Carson's exploratory committee and then as the campaign manager. He left Carson's campaign in December 2015 amid friction with Carson's business advisor Armstrong Williams. Bennett joined Donald Trump's campaign ahead of the Republican National Convention to advise the candidate for delegate selection.

Ben Carson

See also: Ben Carson presidential campaign, 2016

Campaign manager

On March 3, 2015, Bennett was named the head of the exploratory committee for a Ben Carson presidential campaign. When Carson officially announced his presidential campaign on May 3, 2015, Bennett transitioned to the role of campaign manager. According to The Washington Examiner, Bennett "assembled the bulk of the candidate's campaign operation." The paper also reported that Bennett and Carson were first introduced to one another through Ed Brookover, who now serves as a senior strategist for Carson's campaign.

In September 2015, National Review highlighted Bennett's successful use of social media:“It’s going to be a big, expensive draw on television, so you better have a platform to get around that,” he adds. “In politics, you have to dominate a lane. We’ve chosen to dominate social media.”

Departure and comments

On December 31, 2015, Bennett and Carson communication director Doug Watts resigned their positions with the campaign. In a piece in The Hill, Bennett explained his resignation in more detail:

“

I called Ben this morning…and explained to him the root of the problem is that you told me Armstrong is not involved in the campaign but he clearly is,” Bennett said. “My frustration level is boiling over so I told him I think it’s best that I leave." Bennett said he believed “a lot more” staffers would follow him out the door and predicted the campaign team would be “decimated.”

”

According to an NBC piece, "[a] source familiar with the internal workings of the campaign blamed acrimony within the campaign on Carson's close confidante, Armstrong Williams." After Bennett's resignation, he told Politico that "he met informally with Trump campaign officials about logistical hurdles they'll face should Trump win the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses and sweep the early primary states in February and March." Williams suggested that this move was an attempt "to curry favor with the Trump campaign by delivering Dr. Carson's campaign infrastructure on a platter."

Donald Trump

See also: Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016

Informal advisor

Bennett began serving as an advisor to the Donald Trump campaign in early 2016 after leaving the Carson campaign. In mid-February, he spoke to Politico about the possibility of a brokered Republican nominating convention, saying, "This is going to be a convention like I’ve never seen in my lifetime. It’s going to be contentious from Day One." In a May 2016 interview, Bennett commented on first meeting and advising Trump, comparing the candidate to former President Bill Clinton (D): "They have very much the same personality, they're very engaging people. ... The first time I met him, I went up in January right after I left the Ben Carson campaign. I liked his policies, but I loved his personality."

Bennett also told Politico that when he worked for the Carson campaign, "We thought we could do very well at the micromechanics of getting delegates selected. People like Trump, who’s got a social media following of 5 million, or Cruz, who has good connections at the grass-tops level, will be fine. I don’t think any of the establishment candidates are that well positioned." This led to a Trump staffer telling Politico that it is evident that Bennett wants to be the Trump campaign's top operative at the July 2016 GOP presidential nominating convention. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski said, "That is not the role Barry serves".

Delegate strategy

In a piece describing Trump's convention strategy NBC News said that Bennett was "leading the delegate strategy for Trump." Bennett told NBC that the campaign had a "two phase" strategy to securing the majority of delegates. He described the first phase: "You've got 40 days between the last primary and the convention to go woo the appropriate number of unbound delegates. You still have a chance to put together 50 or 75 delegates to win on the first ballot." The second phase would be a strategy to prevent any attrition after a first round of voting."

In March 2016, Trump threatened to file a lawsuit over the delegate allocation in Louisiana. Although Trump won the state's primary election, he was awarded fewer delegates than Ted Cruz after the state's convention. Bennett told MSNBC that the Trump campaign would challenge the delegate allocation through the Republican National Committee as a private party appeal. Bennett said that the Republican Party of Louisiana did not inform the Trump campaign about the meeting to award delegates, saying, "They don’t get to elect people without our input." On March 29, Bennett told the Associated Press that Trump's campaign "started ramping up a couple of weeks ago, but we're rolling now" on delegate outreach.

Convention preparation

On May 6, 2016, Bennett told Bloomberg that the Trump campaign was planning an unconventional nominating convention. He said, "Our team will be headed out [to Cleveland] next week or the week after to get our first kind of update of what's going on. But I think when it comes to the program a lot of us feel that we could juice up the format just a little. ... More entertaining, more interesting. I don't know why the candidate only speaks on acceptance night, why shouldn't he speak every night from a different city? How come we are not doing broadcasts on Facebook or Google, why are we just relying on 45 minutes of network television time."

Avenue Strategies

In December 2016, Bennett and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski formed Avenue Strategies, a political consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.

Recent news

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Barry Bennett (Virginia) - Google News

See also

• Ben Carson presidential campaign, 2016
• Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
• Corey Lewandowski

External links

• Avenue Strategies