CEO & Founding Partner Mitch Stewart
Mitch Stewart is a Founding Partner at 270 Strategies and longtime political activist who has played leadership roles in some of the most groundbreaking organizations in American history. As battleground states director for the 2012 Obama for America campaign, he oversaw the strategy that garnered victories in nine of the 10 battleground states, an effort The Guardian called “a historic ground operation that will provide the model for political campaigns in America and around the world for years to come.”
Mitch has put his experience to work for clients in a variety of sectors in the U.S. and globally — including the Environmental Defense Fund, Everytown for Gun Safety, the healthcare industry, and political parties around the world. His work has helped develop grassroots strategies and get out the vote efforts in international elections, including the 2016 Ghana Presidential Election, which not only helped train on the ground supporters and improve Party accountability but ultimately elected a candidate with unprecedented margins. His work in local movements is not limited to the political sphere. He has used grassroots organizing techniques to help companies lead change on important causes, such as reproductive health and environmental issues. By building specific strategies that move people to action, he has worked with one of the leading car manufacturers in the industry to create change through public policy.
He works with organizations – both large and small – to make informed, data-driven decisions to meet their goals. An expert in data analytics, Mitch proactively identifies trends and drivers of program effectiveness for modeling while developing salient methodologies and analyzing effectiveness for resource allocation. Mitch is a frequent commentator and has appeared on network and cable news programs, including CBS This Morning, CNN, NBC News’ TODAY, ABC News, and MSNBC.
Mitch first heard then-Senator Obama speak in Minnesota in 2006 and was inspired to help build his campaign. Since January 2007, Mitch has held a number of positions critical to President Obama’s success — including Iowa state caucus director for the first Obama presidential campaign. The Iowa Caucus victory marked a turning point in the 2007-2008 primary election, establishing Senator Obama as a serious challenger to then-front-runner Hillary Clinton. As the Virginia state director during the 2008 general election, Mitch led the team that delivered Virginia for the Democratic candidate for the first time since 1964 — breaking a 44-year red streak.
Prior to the 2012 campaign, Mitch served as the national director of Organizing for America, where he led a team that drove grassroots momentum for high-profile legislative victories including the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Wall Street Reform, and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Mitch’s career has included positions with the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party, the Environmental Defense Fund, the presidential campaign of then-Senator John Edwards, and the re-election campaign of Senator Tom Daschle.
Mitch holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of South Dakota where he also minored in Chemistry. He grew up in Vermillion, South Dakota – 25 miles from the hometown of Tom Brokaw. Mitch is a fanatic about his high school sports career and regularly tweets at Tom Brokaw about USD sports… we are still awaiting a response.