Pivot Group

Background

Founded in 2011, the Pivot Group is a D.C.-based left-of-center direct mail, targeting, and design firm that incorporates data analytics into its services, such as political advertising. ² Several Pivot Group staff have previously positions in left-leaning nonprofits or Democrat Party-leaning campaigns. ³

Nonprofit Clients

The Pivot Group is listed as an independent contractor on the tax returns of left-of-center charitable advocacy groups such as the  Voter Participation Center and North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Foundation, and lobbying and electoral groups such as the Center for Voter Information and American Civil Liberties Union. ⁴

The Pivot Group has also been hired as an independent contractor for the Black Progressive Action Coalition, a political committee, and the AFL-CIO, a labor union group. ⁴

Between 2016 and 2022, the Voter Participation Center donated roughly $55,006,967 to the Pivot Group for usage as an independent contractor for program services. The Voter Participation center has been criticized for its purchase of voter registration ads on Facebook that allegedly filtered out potential Republican audiences, and for the apparent ideological alignment of its CEO, Tom Lopach, who has worked for a left-leaning lobbying firm and PAC. ^{5 6 7 8 9 10}

People

The Pivot Group holds several vice-president positions. These include Andy Van Wye, who is described on the Pivot Group website as “having a passion for beating up (figuratively) republicans;” ¹¹ Ethan Susseles, who formerly served as campaign director for multiple Democrat Party candidates in Colorado, Missouri, Maryland, New Jersey, and Wisconsin; ¹² Kara Turrentine, who previously worked as senior advisor for the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign and chief executive officer of Turrency Political, a political consulting firm based in Nashville; ¹³ Logan Vidal, who formerly worked as battleground targeting director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC); ¹⁴ Marie Frederickson, who formerly was a senior analyst at Democratic polling firm Lake Research Partners; ¹⁵ and Meghan Cavanaugh, who formerly worked as political and advocacy director at the Alaska Center and executive director of Senate Democratic Leadership Fund. ¹⁶

Other notable employees include Adrienne Cooper, a political strategist at the Pivot Group, and Bridget Davis, who is chief of staff. Cooper formerly worked at the Environmental Defense Fund as director of its “Defend Our Future” campaign, and  Davis worked as a regional campaign director at Planned Parenthood. ^{17 18}