JPKB Consulting is a political consulting firm operated by Julia Barnes, a former Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign staffer who also works as the CEO of the Movement Cooperative, a left-of-center data firm that is a project of the Tides Foundation. ^{1 2}

Background

Julia Barnes, who has worked as the CEO of the Movement Cooperative since March 2022, founded JPKB Consulting in 2017. Prior to this, Barnes worked as a senior advisor to the Be a Hero Fund, was campaign manager for former U.S. Representative Tom Perriello’s (D-VA) unsuccessful 2017 primary campaign for Virginia governor, was the executive director of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, was national field director of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) 2016 presidential campaign, and was the executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party. ¹

Activity

Several posts on Julia Barnes’s LinkedIn page have claimed that she works “helping candidates, progressive organizations, and campaigns design efficient and effective programs to capture more power, more energy, and more seats in 2022,” ¹ “project[ing] managing election administration across five RCV states in the 2020 primary,” ¹ “helping develop a national field program that yielded 10x field metrics in the 2018 midterm over the 2014 cycle for national progressive organizing group,” ¹ and “helping to elect Rachael Rollins as the first Black woman to be the District Attorney of Suffolk County (Boston).” ¹

Her firm has provided consulting services to prosecutor Rachael Rollins, who was elected District Attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Rollins was later appointed by then-President Joe Biden as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts from 2022 to 2023, and resigned a year later after two federal ethics violations found Rollins tried to influence a campaign for Suffolk County District Attorney in favor of Ricardo Arroyo, who lost the race to Kevin Hayden. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel called Rollins’ actions “an extraordinary abuse of her power.” ³ She later had her law license suspended. ⁴

In 2025, Julia Barnes signed a letter to the Vermont press corps “advocating a change in the way Vermont media presents information on women, particularly in government.” The letter claimed, “There are many factors that contribute to the race and gender disparity at the highest levels of power. The past few years have brought a reckoning on issues of racism and sexism. In many of our lives, we are having conversations with our families, co-workers, and friends about the impact of these systemic issues.” ⁵

1. “Julia Barnes.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 6, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpkbarnes/.
2. “Homepage.” The Movement Cooperative. Accessed March 6, 2025. https://movementcooperative.org/
3.   Becker, Deborah. “Former U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins Has Law License Suspended.” WBUR News. March 14, 2024. Accessed April 2, 2025. https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/03/14/rachael-rollins-law-license-suspended
4. Becker, Deborah. “Former U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins Has Law License Suspended.” WBUR News. March 14, 2024. Accessed April 2, 2025. https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/03/14/rachael-rollins-law-license-suspended
5. “Leaders to Vt. Press: Treat Women the Same in Political Coverage.” Addison Independent. January 29, 2021. Accessed April 2, 2025. https://www.addisonindependent.com/2021/01/29/leaders-to-vt-press-treat-women-the-same-in-political-coverage/