Jess O鈥機onnell
Jess O鈥機onnell, Partner, NEWCO Strategies
For nearly twenty years, O鈥機onnell has worked to advance progressive policies and to elect Democrats all over the country. She鈥檚 held senior positions with Hillary Clinton, EMILY鈥檚 List, Center the American Progress, the US Global Leadership Coalition, ONE, and the Children鈥檚 Defense Fund. Most recently, as founder and CEO of JOC Strategy Group, she worked with progressive leaders and organizations on a wide range of leadership and strategic advising. 聽
In 2017, O鈥機onnell served as the CEO at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) where she oversaw an historic reorganization and created a new mission and purpose for an institution that traditionally focused on one election every four years. In 2018, she crafted and launched the national I WILL VOTE campaign to help Democrats win with the largest midterm margin since Watergate. Jess served as spokeswoman for the DNC with CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and more.聽
Jess joined the DNC from EMILY鈥檚 List, the largest political organization and resource for women in the United States, where she was the Executive Director. She helped lead EMILY鈥檚 List to historic increases in membership and fundraising from 3M members to over 5M and $90M raised in 2016. She oversaw the largest independent expenditure program in the organization鈥檚 history at that time.聽
Jess has steered operations for two Presidential campaigns. She served on the senior team as the National Director of Operations for Hillary Clinton鈥檚 first run for President, where Jess directed the day-to-day operations of the national campaign. She played a similar role as the Interim National Director of Operations for Howard Dean in 2003.聽
Jess spoke at the March 2019 Candidate Recruitment training session.聽