Cornell Belcher

Cornell Belcher (born 1968/1969) is an American writer, pollster, and political strategist who is the founder and president of Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies.

Cornell Belcher
Born1968/1969 (age 51–52)[1]
Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.
Alma materJames Madison University
Political partyDemocratic

Early life and education

Born in Norfolk, Virginia,[2] Belcher became interested in politics at a young age when he visited Washington, D.C. on a field trip.[3] He moved to Washington, D.C. after graduating from James Madison University.[2]

Career

In the 1998 election cycle, he served as Women VOTE! coordinator for Emily's List. He was also the Special Projects Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2000 campaign cycle, and as Senior Political Advisor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) in the 2002 cycle.[4] In these roles, he worked first as an intern at Stan Greenberg's Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, and later for Diane Feldman's Feldman Group.[2] In 2005, he began serving as the Democratic National Committee's pollster, making him the first minority to hold this role for the Democratic or Republican Party.[4][5] In this capacity, he conducted polling research on the potential of Democrats to win "red states" that they had previously considered to be out of reach, and helped to organize the "fifty-state strategy" favored by the committee's then-chairman, Howard Dean.[4][6]

In fall 2015, Belcher was a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.[7] Belcher has also been a featured speaker at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.[8]

In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Belcher advised Michael Bloomberg on African American outreach strategy.[9]

Belcher is a regular contributor on NBC News, MSNBC, and NPR.[10][11] He had previously been a political contributor to CNN.[7] Belcher has appeared as a guest on Pod Save America.[12]

Brilliant Corners

In 2001, Belcher founded Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies (stylized brilliant corners Research & Strategies), a polling firm that played a major role in electing Barack Obama as President of the United States in both 2008 and 2012. As of 2020, Belcher remains the firm's president.[4][13] He helped conduct some of the Obama campaign's earliest research on race leading up to the 2008 election.[14]

Recognition

Belcher has been named a pollster of the year by the American Association of Political Consultants, and has twice been named a member of The Root 100.[4]

References
  1. Pressley, Daron (July 1, 2017). "BE Modern Man: Meet the Democracy Disruptor Cornell Belcher". Black Enterprise. Earl G. Graves Publishing Company. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  2. McCarthy, Aoife (2007-02-27). "Obama's Pollster Also Working With the Party". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  3. Parker, Robin Rose (2011-04-24). "First Person Singular: Pollster Cornell Belcher". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  4. "Cornell Bio". Brilliant Corners - Research & Strategies. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  5. "Democratic Pollster Talks about Race and Politics". George Washington University. 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  6. "House Democrats' Campaign Committee Launches Blitz Targeting Black Voters". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  7. "Cornell Belcher". The Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  8. "Distinguished Visiting Urbanist Michael Blake in Conversation with Cornell Belcher". IR INSIDER. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  9. Russonello, Giovanni (2020-02-18). "On Politics: Bloomberg's in the Debate". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  10. "Pressure Grows On Joe Biden To Pick A Black Woman As His Running Mate". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  11. "How President Trump Uses Law-And-Order Narrative For His Reelection Bid". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  12. "Distinguished Visiting Urbanist Michael Blake in Conversation with Cornell Belcher | NYU Wagner". wagner.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  13. Reyes, Sebastian (2016-03-04). "Interview: Cornell Belcher". Harvard Political Review. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  14. Ambinder, Marc (January–February 2009). "Race Over?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
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