Terry Nelson

Terry A. Nelson is a consultant and Republican strategist in the United States. He was the political director of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign. As of March 2015, Nelson is a partner at FP1 Strategies, a political consulting firm.

State and regional

Nelson managed the 1992 campaign of U.S. Representative Jim Nussle, two years before graduating from college, and Nussle's 1994 campaign. From 1995 to 1996 he was a field representative for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). In 1997, he became the majority staff director of the Republican caucus in the Iowa state senate.

National positions at NRCC

In 2000, Nelson became the political director of the NRCC.

From January 2002 to July 2003, Nelson was deputy chief of staff of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Presidential campaigns

In July 2003, Nelson became the political director of the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign, a position he held for the next year and a half.

In early 2006, Nelson was hired as a "senior adviser" to John McCain's Straight Talk America political action committee. In late 2005, Nelson had told the National Journal that he wouldn't make a decision about which Republican campaign to join until 2007 at the earliest, saying "I'm currently enjoying my private life and don't have immediate plans to change that."

Dawson McCarthy Nelson Media

In 2001, Nelson co-founded the Republican media firm Dawson McCarthy Nelson Media (DMNM), a communication and advertising agency that develops strategy, messaging, and advertising for Republican candidates.

Crosslink Strategy Group and Mercury Public Affairs

In 2005, Nelson and his partners at DMNM started another firm, Crosslink Strategy Group, to create grassroots campaigns for corporations and interest groups. The firm’s website says it can teach clients how to "increase your PAC fundraising" and ensure "compliance with campaign finance laws."

In May 2006, Crosslinks Strategy Group became an operating unit of Mercury Public Affairs, with Nelson becoming a partner and running the firm's Washington, D.C. office. The firm describes itself as "a full-service strategic communications firm" whose political division "has been involved in successful political campaigns in over thirty states." It is part of the Omnicom Group, a global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company.

2006 Senate election

In September 2006, the Washington Post reported that the Republican National Committee had hired Nelson to run an independent expenditure campaign for U.S. Senate seats in the November general election, featuring information opposition researchers unearthed about Democrats.

Nelson is a native of Marshalltown, Iowa. He graduated in 1994 from the University of Iowa with a B.S. in Political Science. Nelson, his wife Marci, and their three children live in Falls Church, Virginia.