Team
Tad Devine
Since 1993, Tad Devine has worked as a media consultant, writing, directing and producing television and radio advertising for leading Democratic candidates in the U.S. and providing strategic advice for national campaigns in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. He has produced media in 17 winning campaigns for U.S. Senate, and has worked as a strategist/media consultant in nine winning campaigns for President or Prime Minister around the world. He has also taught campaign management and strategy courses at Boston University and The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.
In the United States, Mr. Devine has worked at the highest levels of campaigns for President. In 2004, Mr. Devine served as a senior advisor and strategist to Senator John Kerry’s campaign for President in both the primary and the general election. He frequently represented the campaign on programs like Meet the Press and Face the Nation. In the 2000 election, Mr. Devine served as a senior strategist for Vice President Al Gore’s Presidential campaign, and oversaw the implementation of the day-to-day strategy of the campaign in the general election.
In 1992, Tad Devine was Campaign Manager for Senator Bob Kerrey’s campaign for President. Later that year, Mr. Devine served as a member of the Democratic Party Rules Committee from RI. He was again a member of the Rules Committee in 2004 from VA. At the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York he was a consultant to CBS News.
In 1987-88, Mr. Devine served as Director of Delegate Selection and Field Operations in the nomination campaign of Governor Michael Dukakis for President. In the general election, Mr. Devine served as Campaign Manager for the Vice Presidential nominee, Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas.
In 2008, TIME magazine called Tad Devine “perhaps the party’s leading expert on delegates,” and in 2000 the Weekly Standard wrote that he was “among the Democratic Party’s top two or three general election strategists.” Tad Devine’s work in politics began in 1980 on President Jimmy Carter’s campaign as a delegate tracker. He later worked as Deputy Delegate Director in the primary campaign of Walter Mondale, and Exec. Asst. to the Campaign Manager in the 1984 general election for President.
Mr. Devine’s international experience includes his work as a strategist and media consultant for nine winning campaigns for President or Prime Minister around the world, including Colombia (President Andres Pastrana – 1998), Israel (Prime Minister Ehud Barak – 1999), Peru (President Alejandro Toledo – 2001), Bolivia (President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada – 2002), Honduras (President Mel Zelaya – 2005), Ukraine (Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich – 2006), and in Ireland (Taoiseach Bertie Ahern – 1997, 2002 and 2007).
Mr. Devine has also worked in law, government, and academia. After graduation from law school in 1982 he served as a law clerk to the Rhode Island Superior Court, and from 1985 - 87 he worked as an Associate Attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of Winston & Strawn. From 1989 - 90, he served as a Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Providence, R.I.
From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Devine served as Assistant to the President of Boston University. In addition to his duties in President Silber’s office, Mr. Devine taught a course on presidential campaigns in the Department of Political Science and was a frequent university lecturer. His recent publications include the chapter on paid media in the book Campaigns on the Cutting Edge (2008, Congressional Quarterly Press), and the chapter on Barack Obama’s nomination victory (“How He Did It”) in the soon to be released book Campaign for President 2008 (Routledge).
In 2005, Tad Devine and Mike Donilon formed D&D Media. Their firm produced advertising for a winning campaign for Governor in New Jersey (Corzine) and in winning Senate races in Rhode Island (Whitehouse), Florida (Nelson), Vermont (Sanders), and for the DSCC independent expenditure for the winning senate races in Missouri (McCaskill) and New Jersey (Menendez), and for President Mel Zelaya in Honduras and Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich in Ukraine.
In 2007, Tad Devine joined with Julian Mulvey to form Devine Mulvey, a US and international political consulting firm offering strategic and communications advice to clients across the globe. Their first race together was for Fianna Fail in Ireland, in a surprise victory for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that the London Mirror called “the greatest comeback in the history of the nation.”
Tad Devine lives in McLean, VA with his wife Ellen, their three children and two dogs.