JILL ALPER

STRATEGIST + MEDIA CONSULTANT ​

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When the stakes are high and there’s a tough problem to solve, leaders of all kinds turn to Jill and her colleagues for strategies and creativity that produce results.

 

A nationally recognized strategist with a winning record at the highest levels of politics and advocacy, Jill creates strategies and spot-on media to sway decision-making audiences. As an award-winning consultant for best in class strategy and media advertising, she curates expert teams to meet the largest challenges.

 

Formerly the Political Director and Coordinated Campaign Director of the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton years, Jill has worked with campaigns in all 50 states and is a veteran of nine presidential races - many at the national level - providing her with a unique perspective on the contours of our country and significant relationships and reach. 

 

Jill established the first National Coordinated Campaign table for the Democratic Party.  With her “right voters, right places” electoral strategy in 1998, the Democratic Party stunningly beat the “six-year-itch” for the first time since President Jefferson. She was a core member in creating the presidential nominating strategies for Vice-President Al Gore and Senator John Kerry.  For Gore/Lieberman she coordinated state specific media efforts, designed and ran the Election Day Boiler Room, and started the national recount with her colleagues. For Kerry, she served as a General Election electoral strategist. 

 

Though she currently works with elected and movement leaders throughout the United States, Jill is based in suburban Detroit, where she’s worked on winnping campaigns in Michigan for more than 35 years.  Jill has served as a Senior Strategist for leaders like Mayor Dave Bing, Governor Jennifer Granholm and the former Senator Carl Levin - and oversaw numerous MI presidential campaigns; for independent issue committees supporting candidates like Mayor Mike Duggan; and, on ballot initiatives. The American Association of Political Consultants honored her work for Governor Jennifer Granholm against multi-billionaire Dick DeVos, as “Campaign Manager of the Year”.

 

In 2022, Jill served as the Principal Strategist and Media Consultant to Reproductive Freedom For All, the first “Yes” constitutional amendment in the country since the overturn of Roe.  Prop 3 ended Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban and firmly restored reproductive rights to millions of Michiganders. The non-partisan Proposal 3 received more votes than the statewide candidates, and helped sweep Governor Whitmer and Democrats into the majority of both legislative chambers for the first time in 40 years. Jill played the same role for Proposal 2, in 2018, a citizens campaign to end gerrymandering in Michigan, led by Voters Not Politicians. 

 

Jill has an expertise in helping elect women Governors, and has worked with almost every woman governor elected in the country since 2002. In the wake of the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, as Deputy Political Director at the DSCC, Jill co-initiated the Women’s Council and managed the Year of the Woman campaign when Democrats increased their number of women in the Senate from one to five.  

 

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Jill also worked with Correct the Record and the Franklin Forum, working with a team that led the speech coaching efforts for the Philadelphia Democratic National Convention.  Jill served as an elected member of the Democratic National Committee from Michigan for seven years and has served on the DNC Finance Committee. She was a Michigan delegate to the DNCC from 2008 through 2020. 

 

Jill began her activism as a 15-year old Massachusetts State House tour guide. When she applied to become a Senate page, she was told, “Girls not need apply”. She filed a complaint against the all-powerful MA Senate President, William Bulger, which resulted in a week of sustained media attention. Bulger then hired another woman, and the suit was dropped. Through this, she met and volunteered for Gov. Michael Dukakis during his comeback campaign, later joining his presidential campaign. 

 

After Dukakis-Bentsen, she struck out to help produce a startling special election win for Jill Long (Thompson) in IN in an overwhelming Republican District once held by Dan Quayle. After that, she ran one of the first two-Coordinated Campaigns under DNC Chair Ron Brown, in Virginia - with Governor Wilder winning by .03% to become the first African American governor elected in the United States. 

 

Jill graduated from Boston College with a BA in Political Science/Philosophy - and occasionally you will find her teaching at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, or posting about her sons or beloved English Bulldog, Hazen.