Donovan headed to Targeted Victory

Presented by Recycled Materials Association
With Daniel Lippman
FIRST IN PI: Liam Donovan has left Bracewell, where he was a lobbyist and senior political strategist, to launch a new risk and reputation management practice at the GOP consulting firm Targeted Victory. It's aimed at helping clients navigate the shifting demands for successful advocacy in D.C.
— Donovan joined Bracewell in 2017 from the Associated Builders and Contractors, and before that was a fundraiser at the NRSC and helped manage several trade association PACs. In an interview, Donovan said he expected to remain an adviser to some of his former clients at Bracewell as a complement to the work his former colleagues are doing.
— 'I've been, for the last 15 years, doing more shoe-leather lobbying work,' Donovan told PI. But over the past eight years — and especially over the past six months — he argued, 'the old playbook just gives diminishing returns. You can have the best tactics in the world, you could have all the resources in the world and smart people, but the landscape has just fundamentally changed.'
— In Donovan's estimation, if a company or industry is facing challenges in D.C., much of that likely stems from the lack of a broader understanding of how a brand should be positioning itself in the current political landscape, where traditional alignments have been scrambled and almost no longstanding alliances are sacred.
— Donovan pointed as an example to the energy industry, which made up a large chunk of his work at Bracewell. Oil and gas interests in particular expected to come into the second Trump administration riding high, only to face being caught in the president's trade wars.
— The disruption 'I think threw a lot of people for a loop,' Donovan said. 'You had a lot of people that stand to be winners and beneficiaries of these policies that still had to step back and go, 'Wait, what's happening?''
— 'At the end of the day, it all sort of flows up to risk and reputation,' he told PI. 'Whether you're proactively trying to achieve advocacy ends or just trying to stay out of this administration's slipstream, it is really critical to be approaching this in a deliberate way and in a strategic way.'
Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. Send tips. You can add me on Signal, email me at coprysko@politico.com, and be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.
FIRST IN PI — LEO-LINKED GROUP ALIGNED WITH TRIAL LAWYERS: After Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) recently released a bill that would tax profits generated by the third party litigation funding industry, a surprising development occurred: A group from the conservative movement, which is usually against helping out trial attorneys, publicly opposed the bill, Daniel reports.
— Consumers First, which is part of Consumers' Research, said the bill would hurt efforts to fight back against the 'far left woke agenda.' Will Hild, the executive director of the group, said on X, 'While I believe his intentions were good, this legislation, attacking litigation financing, would be disastrous if passed.'
— 'If passed, @SenThomTillis's legislation would further empower large, woke corporations (like @BlackRock, @BankofAmerica & @Nationwide) to crush the little guy and force their far-left agenda onto America,' he added in an X thread. 'It would rob everyday Americans of a fundamental tool in fighting back.'
— PI dug into why Consumers First might be going against the bill since trial lawyers are major supporters of Democrats. In the 2024 election cycle, 84 percent of donations made by Burford Capital, the top player in the third party litigation funding industry, went to Democrats, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of FEC records.
— The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the network of Leonard Leo, the lawyer behind much of the conservative legal movement, is connected to Vallecito Capital, a litigation-finance firm which will fund lawsuits against companies that tout progressive causes like DEI and ESG. And the paper also reported that Leo has contributed cash to Consumers' Research, the parent group of Consumers First.
— 'Foreign actors and the far-left have exploited predatory litigation to attack American companies and conservatives,' Tillis spokesperson Adam Webb said in a statement. 'The right answer for conservatives is to fight back and hold these predators accountable by passing Senator Tillis' legislation.'
— A spokesperson for Leo declined to comment but Hild stood by his criticism of the bill, saying it's 'a gift to woke corporations that uses a bazooka to take out a gnat.'
— 'For decades, conservatives have used litigation as a tool to fight government overreach like Obamacare and woke corporate abuse like what we have seen with ESG and DEI,' added Hild in a statement. 'He is gutting the best tool many Americans have to hold these corporations accountable and shielding companies like Uber and Bank of America from lawsuits while silencing victims and consumers.'
SPEAKING OF SCRAMBLED ALLIANCES: Look no further than the Make America Healthy Again movement's partnership with the GOP, which has set up a clash with rural lawmakers and the agriculture industry. And amid tension over the recent HHS report that took aim at pesticide use, MAHA adviser Calley Means on Wednesday 'joined several agriculture industry groups for a trip to a Maryland farm' in an apparent effort to mend fences, per POLITICO's Grace Yarrow.
— The visit, which was organized by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, 'comes after Means and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a 'heated' discussion with key farm-state Republican senators about the report Tuesday. The White House has also invited nearly 50 agriculture groups and food companies to give their feedback as the MAHA Commission looks to draft policy recommendations before its August deadline.'
CHECKMATE LOCKS ARMS WITH ANOTHER TRUMP FIRM: Checkmate Government Relations, the North Carolina-based lobbying shop whose ties to Trump's inner circle have business booming, is teaming up with Ballard Partners to expand the firms' reach at the state level.
— Ballard is, of course, a Florida-grown lobbying powerhouse. And since setting up shop in D.C. eight years ago the firm has expanded its domestic operations to California, Massachusetts and Illinois. Ballard's partnership with Checkmate is aimed at broadening both firms' reach across the Southeast as well as the other major state markets where Ballard has a presence.
— 'Together, our firms will offer a powerful combination of regional expertise and national reach, ensuring our clients are well-positioned to navigate and solve the issues that matter most,' Ches McDowell, Checkmate's managing partner, said in a statement.
— This is Checkmate's second alliance with a D.C. firm known for its ties to the Trump administration: In February, Checkmate, which had launched its federal lobbying practice months earlier, struck up a partnership at the federal level with Miller Strategies.
COIN IT: Crypto giant Coinbase has added another prominent political ally in David Plouffe, the veteran Democratic strategist who helped steer former Vice President Kamala Harris' White House run last year.
— The former Barack Obama aide is joining Coinbase's global advisory council, where he'll 'bring his skills as a storyteller to an industry whose regulatory struggles have turned into a fight for credibility and stability' and which has found itself in need of more alliances on the left, per POLITICO's Christine Mui and Chris Cadelago.
— 'Among Plouffe's charges will be outreach to tech-savvy voters who flocked to Democrats during the Obama era, but have shifted to the right in recent years.'
— Coinbase's advisory council already represents a who's who of modern day politics: Early this year it welcomed Trump's former co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita and former Democratic-turned-indepenent former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
— Other members include Democratic pollster John Anzalone, former Democratic Reps. Tim Ryan and Stephanie Murphy, former GOP Sen. Pat Toomey, former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper and GOP strategist and lobbyist David Urban. Another top Democratic strategist, Chris Lehane, joined the board at Coinbase last year as the exchange sought to bolster its bipartisan bonafides.
ANNALS OF ETHICS: Executive Branch, the exclusive new club launching in the coming weeks, boasts a 'line-up of Trump royalty,' among its members and founders, Mother Jones' David Corn and Ross Choma report. 'But at the top of the corporate structure of the club, as its president, is a much less well-known figure who previously has not been publicly identified with the high echelons of Trumpworld: a San Francisco real estate businessman named Glenn Gilmore.'
— Gilmore is a close associate of David Sacks, Trump's AI czar and a founding member of the club. And Gilmore's 'role in the endeavor adds to possible ethics questions related to Sacks' involvement in this operation, according to government ethics experts.'
SPOTTED at Walmart's D.C. office on Wednesday for a reception closing out a two-day fly-in focused on the retailer's U.S. manufacturing legacy, per a tipster: Reps. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), Bill Foster (D-Ill.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Brad Knott (R-N.C.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.), Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández (D-Puerto Rico).
— And in the National Beer Wholesalers Association and Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America's suite at the congressional baseball game, per a tipster: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), Mike Bost (R-Ill.), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.), Derek Schmidt (R-Kan.) Langworthy and Van Duyne; Craig Purser, Laurie Knight, Linda Auglis and Brittanny Meierling of NBWA; Dawson Hobbs, Cody Tucker, Dwayne Carson and Dan Jarrell of WSWA; John Bodnovich of American Beverage Licensees and Amanda Nguyen of the American Distilled Spirits Alliance.
— And at the International Spy Museum for a a summer reception hosted by the Brunswick Group, per a tipster: Alan Parker, George Little, Nik Deogun, Courtney Chiang Dorman, Patti Solis Doyle, Lanhee Chen, Tom Burns, Siobhan Gorman, Don Baer, Jim Bognet, Michael Fitzpatrick, Janelle Nowak-Santo, Mark Seifert, Dave Brown, Andrew Williams, Emily Levin, Kate Bedingfield, Michael Schoenfeld, Ninio Fetalvo, Alex Masi, Alasdair Coleman and Noah Ferris of Brunswick; Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.); Steve Dutton of Deloitte, Brittany Kelm of the National Energy Dominance Council, Bob Josephson of Merck, Sarah Craighill of Capital One, Kaily Grabemann of Senate Majority Leader John Thune's office, Stephanie Penn of Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) office, Harry Fones of DHS; Nadgey Louis-Charles of the House Judiciary Committee, Sourav Bhowmick of Global Counsel, Liz Allbright and Meredith Julian of Dropbox, Mo Elleithee of Georgetown Institute of Politics, Neil Grace of McKinsey, Cheyenne Hopkins of Prudential Financial, Aris Lazdins of Stanford Medicine and Brian Hale of Booz Allen Hamilton.
— And at the 15th annual Washington Women in Public Relations Emerging Leaders Awards last night at AT&T Forum, per a tipster: Kathy Baird, formerly of The Washington Post, and award winners Katie Shoaf of Edison Electric Institute; Courtney Bailey of Meta; Ianthe Metzger of Planned Parenthood; Tejah Robinson of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' office, Megan Reilly of Edelman, Katherine Nanney of Merritt Group and Asma Amani of Asma Amani PR.
Jobs report
— Chris Morton will be the new CEO of the American Land Title Association. He previously was the trade group's senior vice president of public affairs and chief advocacy officer.
— Farrin Jay has joined Spotify as global head of consumer product and tech communications. Jay was previously director of product and content communications at Snapchat.
— Ronald Rowe Jr. is joining the Chertoff Group as a senior adviser. He previously was acting director of the Secret Service.
— Reservoir Communications Group is adding Patrick 'Pat' Kannan as CFO and Ashley Flint as a senior vice president. Kannan previously was CFO at OPEXUS. Flint previously was a principal at Avalere Health.
— Ross Perot Jr. of Hillwood and the Perot Group has been elected as board chair at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Jill Wyant of Madison Air was elected vice chair. Perot succeeds Mark Ordan as board chair.
— Jake Vreeburg is joining Fierce Government Relations. He most recently served as director of the D.C. office for the U.N. Mission at State and is an Elise Stefanik and Trump 45 alum.
— Henrietta Levin is now senior fellow for the Freeman chair in China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She most recently was deputy China coordinator for global affairs at the State Department.
— Austin Gage is now a senior associate at Innovative Federal Strategies. He previously was legislative director and counsel for Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.).
New Joint Fundraisers
DSCC Liftoff Fund (Liftoff PAC, Sen. Mark Kelly, DSCC)
New PACs
BUILDERS GROUP PAC (Hybrid PAC)
Team Coughlin
Three Point Five (PAC)
New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS
Becker & Poliakoff, P.A.: Iteris, Inc.
Becker & Poliakoff, P.A.: Residential Solar Association
Constitution Partners: Blue Whale Materials
Continental Strategy, LLC: Dexcom
Continental Strategy, LLC: Entrokey Labs
Continental Strategy, LLC: Veon Ltd.
Crossroads Strategies, LLC: Vera Institute Of Justice, Inc.
Holland & Knight LLP: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Ice Miller LLP: Akron Children'S Hospital
Neale Creek, LLC: International Organization For Migration
Red Maple Consulting, LLC: International Legal Finance Association
Red Maple Consulting, LLC: Magnet Schools Of America
S2R, LLC: Csmi
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP Dba Taft Advisors LLC Fka (Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, LLP): Fort Harrison Reuse Authority
The Roosevelt Group: Illinois Quantum And Microelectronics Park
Tiger Hill Partners LLC: Paradigm Operations Lp
University Health Systems Of Eastern Carolina, Inc. D/B/A Ecu Health: University Health Systems Of Eastern Carolina, Inc. D/B/A Ecu Health
Valiant Strategies LLC: R.R.P. Consulting Engineers, LLC Obo Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority
Valiant Strategies LLC: R.R.P. Consulting Engineers, L.L.C. Obo Southwebb Bridge Company, LLC
New Lobbying Terminations
Avoq, LLC: Omeros Corporation
Barsa Strategies, LLC: The Cormac Group (On Behalf Of Participate, Inc.)
Morrison & Foerster, LLP: American Bankers Association

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The Hill

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'The regime in Iran, which has committed itself to bringing 'death to America' and wiping Israel off the map, has rejected all diplomatic pathways to peace. The mullahs' misguided pursuit of nuclear weapons must be stopped,' he said. 'As we take action tonight to ensure a nuclear weapon remains out of reach for Iran, I stand with President Trump and pray for the American troops and personnel in harm's way.' Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), similarly, backed Trump after the strike and applauded him for making the 'right call.' 'Iran has waged a war of terror against the United States for 46 years. We could never allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. God bless our brave troops. President Trump made the right call and the ayatollahs should recall his warning not to target Americans,' Cotton wrote on X. 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'While President Trump's decision may prove just, it's hard to conceive a rationale that's Constitutional. I look forward to his remarks tonight,' he wrote on X. Trump's decision to strike a trio of Iranian nuclear sites came after a week of debate on Capitol Hill over whether the U.S. should take action in Iran after Israel launched an attack on Iran, prompting a back-and-forth between the two countries. Trump on Thursday said he would decide whether to take action within the next two weeks. 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiation that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go in the next two weeks,' Trump said in the statement read by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The big question had been whether the U.S. would deploy a large bomb known as a 'bunker buster' to strike the Fordow facility, which is underground. While some lawmakers advocated for the move, others — including some of the president's most vocal supporters on the right-flank — pushed against the U.S. directly getting involved in the conflict. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), for example, said 'Me and my district support President Trump and his MAGA agenda, it's what we voted for in November, and foreign wars weren't a part of it.' On Saturday night, she offered prayers for the safety of U.S. troops and Americans in the Middle East. 'Let us pray that we are not attacked by terrorists on our homeland after our border was open for the past 4 years and over 2 Million gotaways came in.🙏 Let us pray for peace. 🙏,' she added. But across the GOP conferences on Capitol Hill, Republicans were quick to back the move by the president. 'Our commander-in-chief has made a deliberate —and correct— decision to eliminate the existential threat posed by the Iranian regime,' Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) wrote in a statement on X. 'We now have very serious choices ahead to provide security for our citizens and our allies and stability for the middle-east. Well-done to our military personnel. You're the best!' House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the No. 3 House Republican, said Trump 'was right then, and he is right today: NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE.' 'A nuclear Iran posed a threat to the Middle East and to the world. @POTUS has been consistent that this dangerous regime should NEVER possess a nuclear weapon,' he added in a statement on X.