Terry Sullivan

“Young aide an old hand at battle” is how the Dallas Morning News described Terry Sullivan. Terry is known as a hardball strategist in heated campaigns.

Campaigns don’t get much more heated than Jim DeMint’s 2004 United States Senate campaign in which Terry served as the campaign manager. DeMint, a little known Congressman from South Carolina’s UpState, was a long shot for the United States Senate against a former Governor, a self financing multimillionaire, and a former attorney general. He squeaked into the run-off as the underdog, but then routed his opponent by 19%. DeMint then moved to the general election to face the state’s most beloved Democrat.

Over the course of the general election the campaign was tested and had to overcome many hurdles, receiving much national attention. Terry led the campaign to a double digit victory.

Following DeMint’s victory, Terry was recruited by United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a powerful Texas Republican, to manage her campaign as she weighed running for Governor of Texas. Although Hutchison decided to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate, her exploratory campaign drew significant national media attention as she regularly spared with the incumbent Governor. This gained Terry the reputation in Texas media outlets as a gunslinger in “all out brawls.”

Terry’s first political job was as youth coordinator for U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. In the late 90’s he moved to South Carolina, working on many legislative, congressional, and statewide races, including serving as state director of Steve Forbes’ presidential campaign. Soon thereafter he became partners with Heath Thompson in the consulting firm Crescent Creative. During their tenure, the firm had a better than 95% win rate.

In 2006 Terry served as the regional political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, covering 14 United States Senate races from North Dakota to Florida. In 2008 Terry served as the SC State Director for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign before overseeing the daily operations of First Tuesday Strategies, direct mail firm On The Mark Direct, and the most successful slate of legislative candidates in the election cycle.

Terry currently serves as the manager for Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial campaign.