Cagle Announces Veteran Campaign Team

Staff Report From Georgia CEO

Monday, October 2nd, 2017

Casey Cagle announced his team of campaign staff and advisers.

“I’ve always said: In business, you find someone who’s proven they can do a job and can go out and do it again,” Cagle said. “I have assembled a group of professionals who are experienced veterans of Georgia political campaigns and who have proven they can give us the support we need to win this governor’s race. Nita and I could not be more encouraged by the talented team we have behind us.

This staff and advisory team is just the tip of the spear of a statewide network of grassroots leaders, volunteers, donors and supporters. As I have always said, the most important people to a campaign are those who volunteer their own time in support of our conservative vision.”

The campaign will be led by campaign manager Scott Binkley who joins Cagle’s team after serving as the Executive Director of the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association and with the Republican Governors Association. Binkley began his political career serving in the congressional office of now-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.

The communications arm of the campaign will be advised by former Gov. Deal communications director Brian Robinson and led by communications director Joseph Hendricks.

A veteran political shop will be managed by former political director to Karen Handel’s successful congressional campaign, Ian Caraway, who also managed the successful race of the current Cobb County Commission chairman. Nathan Deal campaign veteran, Brian Harris, will serve as field director and another Handel campaign alum, Samantha Sheldon, will serve as deputy field director.

The finance team will be run by veteran Georgia fundraiser Rebecca Cummiskey and supported by Taylor Cheek, who joins the campaign from Peachtree Government Relations. DeAnna McDuffie will serve as the director of operations for the campaign after experience in the Georgia House Majority Caucus Office as well Troutman Sanders Strategies.

Cagle brings to bear a list of acclaimed experts in campaign politics with his advisory team, a group that has remained largely unchanged since his first statewide run in 2006. The advisory team will be led by the campaign’s chairman, Charles Tarbutton. Longtime Georgia campaign consultant Mitch Hunter will serve as the strategic adviser to the campaign. Nationally recognized pollster John McLaughlin will continue to serve as Cagle’s pollster. Sonny Scott will advise as media consultant to the campaign as he did for Nathan Deal in 2010 and 2014. Jay Williams, having helped a huge number of Georgia Republicans to victory, will assist the campaign as digital and mail strategist. Veteran Georgia political attorney Anne Lewis will provide counsel to Cagle’s campaign.