PERSON: Rebecca Katz

New Deal Strategies

Founder

For two decades, Rebecca Kirszner Katz has helped candidates, personalities, campaigns, and causes shape the narrative and tell their story. Katz has worked in all levels of government – from the local to the federal — on political campaigns, and issue-advocacy efforts on behalf of non-profit groups. She has expertise in communications planning and strategy, rapid response, media relations, and message development.

Katz is a rare communications specialist who has experience successfully navigating both the daily grind of big city news-cycles and long-form journalism. She has a knack for helping clients mix both the serious and the soft in order to shape public image, develop narratives that drive a positive message, and preempt unflattering stories.

Katz has worked in nearly every political setting imaginable, beginning in the House of Representatives, then on presidential campaigns, and then running Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s war room, which helped position Democrats to win back the Senate.

In 2013, Katz worked as a top advisor to an upstart campaign for Mayor of New York City that would upset the political establishment. While other candidates in the race stuck to issues that were considered safe, Bill de Blasio’s campaign ran on an aggressively progressive platform, focusing on inequality and an unjust racial justice system. When de Blasio won – because of his progressive stances, not despite them – it was a national proof point that you can win without compromising your ideals. And this was not unique to New York City.

In 2016, Katz worked with a small-town mayor named John Fetterman who launched a long-shot bid for the U.S. Senate. The campaign bucked the traditional strategy in Pennsylvania and ran on Fetterman’s progressive record, rather than running away from it. The Democratic establishment had different ideas, spending heavily on behalf of their chosen candidate, a moderate who wouldn’t excite voters but could collect big checks. Despite being outspent more than 15 to 1, Fetterman earned 20% of the vote in a 4-way race, and two years later was elected Lieutenant Governor in a landslide — winning solidly against the entrenched Democratic incumbent in the primary and beating the Republican nominee in the general by a million more votes than the ticket garnered four years earlier. Fetterman’s campaign resonated throughout Pennsylvania, showing that the way to win a purple state isn’t by running as a watered-down moderate, but rather by being an authentic, progressive populist.

More recently, Katz served as a top strategist for Cynthia Nixon’s insurgent run for governor, a campaign that moved the entire state to the left and supported a slate of young progressives that would topple centrist incumbent legislators. In the end, the unabashedly progressive campaign accomplished more by losing an election than most Democrats do when they win.

Katz has also worked with many advocacy groups, advising Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, managing her media profile and working with the organization to successfully fight back against an unprecedented assault on women’s health during Trump’s presidency.

Katz has a BA from Clark University and a Master’s in Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, where she has also taught graduate courses on congressional politics.