Chris Cooper is a Managing Director in the Washington, DC office of SKDKnickerbocker. He joined the firm in 2009 after nearly nine years with MSHC Partners (formerly Malchow Schlackman Hoppey & Cooper), a targeted political communications company in Washington, San Francisco, and Austin.

A National Record of Success

Chris has built a distinguished career in Democratic politics for almost two decades, having worked or consulted on campaigns in 36 states and the District of Columbia. His experience spans the fields of communications strategy, persuasion mail, media consulting, campaign management, and public relations. He has helped candidates across the country win elections from governor and U.S. senator to state representative and city councilmember.

In every election cycle since 1998, Chris has developed persuasion mail for the independent expenditure arm of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). His work with the DCCC and directly for congressional candidates has helped elect 35 Democratic members of Congress.

Chris believes strongly in the importance of electing Democrats to state and local offices. In 2008, he played a key role in Ohio Democrats’ successful campaign to regain control of the Ohio House of Representatives for the first time in 14 years. He has worked extensively in Virginia, including the election of Governor Tim Kaine in 2005, helping Democrats regain the State Senate in 2007, and winning State House seats in each election since 2003. A native of Charleston, SC, Chris has helped elect Democrats to Congress and the State Legislature from conservative “red” districts in Idaho, Texas, South Dakota, and Kentucky.

A Wide-Ranging Political Background

During the 1990s, Chris served as national development director and political director at the New Democrat Network; campaign director at Campaign Performance Group, a persuasion mail firm; account executive at Joe Slade White and Company, a media consulting firm; manager of two congressional campaigns, including the 1996 re-election campaign of former U.S. Rep. John Spratt (D-SC); director of voter identification and turnout on a gubernatorial campaign; and as a Capitol Hill aide on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee under then-Chairman Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC). As a student, Chris was a proud volunteer precinct captain for Clinton-Gore ’92, helping the ticket win his precinct by one vote.

Chris graduated cum laude from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and is a frequent lecturer at colleges, political training seminars, and conferences in the U.S. and Europe. Chris and his wife, Elizabeth Spratt Cooper, live in Washington, DC, with their two daughters.