Are you ready?
Democracy needs better, bolder, and more diverse voices to fight for our communities.
Those voices deserve a competitive edge.
At Slingshot, we have a commitment to strategic problem solving and principled politics.
We partner with organizations and candidates who share these goals to tackle the greatest challenges we face.
Together, we'll have the tools and energy needed to create the future we deserve.
What We Do
Slingshot Strategies conducts complex, tailored communications, research, and project management
initiatives for political campaigns, independent expenditures, nonprofits, think tanks, and issue
advocacy organizations, with a focus on narrative change, civic engagement, and marginalized
communities. As a firm, we want to help lift up the voices of women, people of color, the working class,
and the LGBTQ community. We want to fight for the issues that matter, from the housing crisis to the climate crisis to racial justice and income inequality. And at a time when women’s rights are under attack, we are proud that our firm is more than 50 percent women.
Whether it’s winning elections, encouraging civic engagement, or directing resources to worthy projects we marry deep experience to a full suite of high-level capabilities honed over decades of political work.
We are unafraid to innovate and push the envelope through visionary projects while relying on a block-and-tackle approach that stresses basic competencies and strong fundamentals to achieve results.
Polling + Data
We conduct tailored research initiatives for political campaigns, independent expenditures, nonprofits, think tanks, and issue advocacy organizations.
We offer sophisticated multimodal polling, capturing a wide and representative sample while remaining less expensive and more versatile than traditional landline-only polling.
Our services include high-level analysis of polling data and strategic guidance that maximizes what the campaign can do.
Political Advisory
We work with candidates, donors, nonprofits, and other groups to develop strategic and inclusive solutions to political problems.
We are project managers and campaign advisors, offering guidance on strategy, communications, fundraising, and more. We also work with donors to coordinate programs and maximize impact.
Our clients bring bold new ideas, and we provide the capabilities and experience needed to realize their vision.
Communications and Public Affairs
We develop and implement communications strategies that demand attention, build brands, and tell powerful stories. We engage in big-picture strategy to plan media appearances and messaging, including identifying potential media opportunities and actions to raise your profile, with an eye to controlling narratives rather than reacting to contact.
Slingshot shapes compelling stories about your work, and pitches those stories to our extensive contacts at local and national print, digital, and broadcast outlets, as well as our contacts in radio and on select podcasts.
We prepare surrogates and spokespeople for interviews, providing one-on-one prep and briefing memos, as needed. Beyond pitching individual stories and interviews, Slingshot educates reporters working to build long-lasting media relationships by strengthening connections with key journalists.
Our Work In Action
explore our past projects >>>
Case 1: Jumaane Williams for New York Public Advocate
Slingshot produced a sophisticated piece of highly actionable research for Jumaane Williams. Our work included a neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide to targeting and outreach for the campaign.
Case 2: America in One Room
Slingshot worked as the political advisor to the A1R project, a groundbreaking experiment on polarization and political dialogue. Slingshot assisted the project organizers in recruiting speakers and attracting media coverage.
Case 3: Federal Primary Challenges
Slingshot conducted in-depth polling on several federal primary challenges. Our highly-accurate multimodal polling provided an overview of the political landscape in key elections, allowing us to shape the media narrative, place pressure on incumbents, and offer guidance to challengers.
Our Leadership
Evan Roth Smith
Founding Partner
Evan Roth Smith is a Democratic campaign consultant and pollster whose work includes federal, state, and local races, as well as independent expenditures and nonprofit advisory. He has run polling, data, and targeting operations in every state and hundreds of districts, as well as France, Japan, Israel, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Canada, India, China, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Evan has led and managed 8-figure donor advisory projects in the civic engagement space, working with some of the largest donors in the country to deliver resources to tailor-built projects premised on accountability and clear results.
Roth Smith is the coauthor of Putin's Master Plan (Encounter, 2016) and his polling and writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, The Daily Beast, National Journal, Fox News, The Huffington Post, Politico, Daily Kos, and Newsday, among other outlets.
Sam Haass
Founding Partner
Sam Haass is a Democratic political operative and strategist with over a decade of experience in elections at the municipal, state, and federal levels, as well as with national issue organizations and independent expenditures. With experience on both the most tactical and most strategic sides of politics, he has effectively and successfully managed large campaigns as well as field, finance, advance, and political departments. In 2020, Haass managed an 8-figure 501(c)(3) voter registration and turnout operation in a key battleground state, and continues to work with major political donors to create lasting political change.
Haass has appeared as a political commentator on SiriusXM radio.
Alyssa Cass
Partner
An experienced political and communications professional, Alyssa brings over a decade of experience working to shape both the narrative in the media and the campaign strategy
on-the-ground. She is currently a Partner at Slingshot Strategies, joining the firm after a stint working as a senior communications advisor to Andrew Yang’s mayoral campaign. At Slingshot, Alyssa has helped lead influencer
and policy communications campaigns, driven messaging
and earned media on successful political campaigns, and provided strategic guidance to a range of nonprofits, multi partner coalitions, political organizations, ballot initiatives, and candidates. In January 2022, she was named to City & State’s Political PR power list.
She was previously a Principal at New Deal Strategies, a consulting firm for the progressive movement. At NDS, she helped clients like Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Secretary Deb Haaland, Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Revolving Door Project craft
defining narratives, raise their profiles, elevate their work, and win elections.
Prior to NDS, Alyssa was the political and communications director at Future Now and Future Now Fund, where she oversaw the PAC’s multi-state spending strategy, funding tactics to reach the greatest number of potential voters and to build the long-term infrastructure and capacity most states don’t have. She came to Future Now from Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, where she was a Managing Director providing strategic counsel and tactical support across communications and public affairs disciplines.
Alyssa grew up in Colorado and later graduated from Colby College, in Waterville, ME. She’s been a proud New Yorker since 2009, and has lived in 13 apartments since arriving in the city.
Sam Raskin
Senior Vice President
Sam Raskin is a former reporter for the New York Post, where he reported on a wide array of issues and served in multiple different roles. He previously reported for several other local news outlets based in the five boroughs, including Politico New York, Gotham Gazette, Curbed New York, Gothamist and Patch.
Raskin grew up in New York City and graduated from NYU, where he majored in politics and minored in history, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
Jeff Coote
Communications Strategist
Jeff Coote is a passionate political strategist with experience deploying digital advertising and outreach tactics for organizations and campaigns in the Democratic space. By integrating persuasive messaging and compelling creative, he has impacted elections, steered large grassroots fundraising efforts, and helped build brand awareness for winning issue campaigns. Having worked nationally and in New York, he has experience interacting with a diverse range of audiences and political landscapes.
Before moving to New York, Jeff studied Democratic movements and international politics at Boston College and researched at the University of Hong Kong during the 2019 protest movement there.
Work with Us
Can we help you achieve your goals? Let's make it happen.
Brooklyn, New York
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