WASHINGTON — Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Jessica Post announced promotions to two new key positions today as the committee prepares for an unprecedented $50 million campaign to flip state legislatures from red to blue this year. The new positions will help the DLCC capitalize on its success and momentum from the last few election cycles and build a cutting-edge campaign operation to compete for state legislative seats across the country this year.
“After seeing great successes in 2017, 2018, and 2019, the DLCC is getting ready for some incredible victories this November,” said DLCC President Jessica Post. “We’re committed to building the strongest team possible to support our partners in the states and win back power for Democrats in statehouses across the country. American democracy is truly on this line this November and we’re making sure that Democrats are ready to meet this challenge.”
Leslie Martes, previously the independent expenditure director and a senior advisor, will serve as the DLCC’s vice president of political and strategic initiatives, overseeing the political team and the IE program and driving the committee’s overall political strategy. Leslie is a veteran political strategist who previously served as the League of Conservation Voters’ state electoral campaign director working on strategic political programs with LCV’s network of state leagues to elect climate champion governors and state legislators. She is also proud to have served as the director of the North Carolina House Democratic Caucus and worked on political campaigns at all levels from presidential to state legislative races in New Hampshire, Iowa, Oklahoma and Washington state. She is a native of El Cajon, California.
Tara Brosnan has been promoted from director of data and analytics to become vice president of campaigns and analytics. In addition to overseeing the DLCC’s data department, Tara will lead the new State Campaigns Team, which will add further research, digital, data and communications capacity to support the DLCC’s work across a wide battleground this November. Tara started at the DLCC in 2017 as the committee’s first-ever data director. Previously, she worked for the Nevada State Democratic Party, first as the data director for the 2016 presidential caucuses and then as data and analytics director for the coordinated campaign during that year’s general election.
Under Post’s leadership, the DLCC has quadrupled its staff and grown its fundraising from $10 million to a goal of $50 million for this cycle. Since 2016, the committee has helped flip over 430 state legislative seats and 10 chambers from red to blue, and it plans to target 19 Republican-held chambers across 13 states this year.
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