Chris Jones Coalition
State-Legislative Strategy · Est. 2011
Vol. XIII · Columbus, OH
Twenty-two Republican, nineteen Democratic, four Independent — every principal has staffed a leadership office in the chamber your seat sits in. No DC-rooted firm staffs the floor the way this bench does.
Every name on the bench has held a staff position, committee gavel, or floor leadership post in the chambers our clients now occupy. Eleven of the forty-five have carried the title Chief of Staff to a Speaker, President, Majority Leader, or Minority Leader. Four have chaired appropriations committees in their respective states. Two have run statewide as the nominee of their party.
This is the working assumption behind every Coalition engagement: the person giving the strategic counsel has sat in the chair the client is defending. A Washington, D.C. firm that pivots to state races every four years cannot replicate it. The bench is what makes the firm's retention rate — 94% across the 2018, 2020, and 2022 cycles — defensible against primary and general challengers alike.
Read the affiliations slowly. The point is not the headcount. The point is that for every state house and state senate district a prospective client occupies, the bench already contains a principal who has worked that chamber's rules, that majority's whip count, and that minority's procedural playbook.
Forty-five senior strategists listed by chamber, state, and party affiliation. Each entry notes the most recent chamber role held in office.
A complete roster of all forty-five senior strategists is provided to prospective clients under NDA during the Coalition Diagnostic. The twelve principals above represent each of the firm's five field offices and the four principal practice areas.
Trade and trade-adjacent publications covering the bench — not press releases written by the firm.
The trade publication's annual ranking named the firm the leading state-legislative consultancy of 2023, citing the 94% incumbent retention across three cycles and the ChamberCast model's audited accuracy.
Filed November 2023
Finalist for the American Association of Political Consultants' Reed Award in the State Legislative Consulting category every year from 2019 through 2024 — the only firm with a consecutive six-year finalist streak in the category.
Filed February 2024
Verified the firm's 94% incumbent retention figure across the 2018, 2020, and 2022 cycles — the highest among any consultancy whose client list is weighted toward state-house races rather than federal work.
Filed March 2023
Marist's methodology team published its annual audit of the ChamberCast forecasting model: 91.2% accuracy across 4,600+ state-house race calls since the 2016 cycle — the highest audited accuracy of any state-legislative forecasting tool in continuous operation.
Filed December 2023The firm does not publish press releases. Coverage of the bench appears in the publications above at the editors' discretion and is verified against primary source documents.
When you book the Coalition Diagnostic, you meet two principals from the bench above — one from each major party and one Independent when your district warrants it — alongside a polling lead, a floor-strategy lead, and a field lead. The call ends with a written three-page diagnostic covering your district's primary vulnerability, your coalition's current composition, and the two pieces of legislation your chamber will move in the next session that your seat is best positioned to carry.
Diagnostic slots are opened on a rolling basis for sitting state legislators. The current intake window extends through the next primary filing deadline.