jamesallenjr

With experience from the marble hallways of Capitol Hill to the streets of New York City, James Allen is a seasoned strategist and spokesman who has provided counsel to numerous elected officials and political campaigns. He currently serves as Vice President for Communications and Strategy at PolicyMic, a digital media company in New York with 12 million unique readers each month.

Allen was most recently a top advisor to Cory Booker, overseeing a staff of six and helping Booker juggle his responsibilities as mayor of Newark with the demands of a high-profile U.S. Senate campaign. As director of communications, he served as Mayor Booker's chief spokesman in City Hall, designing and implementing a successful strategy to highlight the mayor's many accomplishments, quickly correct misinformation, and secure Mayor Booker's two-term legacy under the bright lights of the national media.

In 2012, as campaign manager for U.S. Congressman John Carney, Democrat of Delaware, Allen developed and executed a strategy to win 64 percent of the vote for a statewide congressional seat that was held by a Republican from 1993 to 2011. On Capitol Hill, he was a senior advisor to Congressman Carney, successfully developing his reputation as a policy-oriented member focused on bipartisan solutions, a brand that was solidified when The New York Times profiled the first-term congressman’s efforts.

From New York and Delaware to Montana and South Carolina, Allen has experience on numerous political campaigns, including as an Obama for America staff member in 2008. He has spent years in the private sector as a senior account executive at Weber Shandwick, one of the world's leading public relations firms, where he worked in the Washington, London, and New York offices.

Allen has been quoted in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and he maintains strong relationships with reporters and producers at top-tier media outlets.

As an undergraduate, Allen served in the office of then-Senator Hillary Clinton, Democrat of New York. A rhetoric and communication major with a double minor in journalism and political science, he graduated with honors from the State University of New York at Albany.