¶ Meridian Strategies
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Meridian Strategies, LLC is an American political strategy firm based in New York City, New York.
¶ History
Meridian Strategies was incorporated in November 2018[1] by Justin Chae and Evan Sheaffer, officially launching in January 2019. Chae was 19 years old at the time.[2] The firm's first client was Melissa Mark-Viverito, former speaker of the New York City Council,[3] and its early clientele mostly consisted of Democratic candidates seeking local office.[4]
¶ COVID-19
During the declared COVID-19 pandemic, Meridian employed canvassers in New York City to promote COVID-19 vaccines and testing programs as part of the NYC Test & Trace Corps.[5] Meridian's canvassers "spent nine months going door to door persuading people to get their first shot,"[6] and the firm claims to have registered "over 142,000 vaccine-hesitant" New Yorkers.[7]
¶ 2024 presidential election
On April 19, 2024, Meridian created an account on Reddit and published a job posting in a subreddit called NYCJobs. The post offered "$30 an hour to collect petition signatures for independents and democrats” between April 16 and May 21.[8]
On May 9, 2024, the New York Times published an article accusing canvassers for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign of deceiving New Yorkers into signing their petitions to get Kennedy on the ballot.[9] Within nine minutes of the article's publication, Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokeswoman Lis Smith amplified it in a multi-post thread on X, comparing Kennedy to Donald Trump.[10]
Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, Kennedy's campaign manager, subsequently revealed on May 11 that the accused canvassers were hired by Meridian, which had been hired as a subcontractor on the "unabashed endorsement" of Joe Reubens of The Parkside Group. She noted the June 2023 statement of Meridian's senior adviser, Hank Sheinkopf, that pro-Joe Biden Democrats wanting to undermine Kennedy should "get in behind the scenes and take him apart."[11] Fox stated that the campaign was "referring Meridian's work-product to law enforcement immediately" and would be excluding Meridian's ballots from its submission.[12]
¶ Organization
| Name | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Justin Chae | Co-Founder[3:1] | Reserve Officers' Training Corps |
| Evan Sheaffer | Co-Founder[3:2] | Fordham University |
| Grace Piotrowski | Deputy Program Director, NYC Vaccination Outreach Program (March-August 2021)[13] | 2024 Democratic National Convention Committee, Biden for President, Data for Progress, Democracy for America |
| Hank Sheinkopf | Senior Adviser[2:1] | Sheinkopf Communications |
| Gaurav Sharma | Project Manager[3:3] | Stony Brook University |
| Abdus Samad Tanvir | Outreach Canvasser[5:1] | Alif Enterprise, Board of Elections in the City of New York |
¶ Clients
Clients of Meridian Strategies include:[3:4][14][4:1][2:2]
- Andrew Gounardes
- Arthur Schwartz
- Bianca Rajpersaud
- Brown & Weinraub
- Capalino
- Correction Officers' Benevolent Association (COBA)
- Daniel Rosenthal
- David Weprin
- Elizabeth Crowley
- Joseph Addabbo Jr.
- Jumaane Williams
- Long Island Law Enforcement Foundation (LILEF)
- Lynne Uniman
- Melissa Mark-Viverito
- Michael Weinstock
- Millennial Strategies
- Moxy Hotels
- New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany
- NYC Test & Trace Corps
- The Parkside Group
- PX4 Development
- Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)
- Regal Cinemas
- Rory Lancman
- Sheinkopf Communications
- Teamsters Local 237
- TickPick
- Toby Stavisky
¶ External links
¶ Further reading
- May 31, 2024: "Was the Fake Signature Gatherers Story a Setup by the DNC?" by Liam Sturgess, published by The Kennedy Beacon
New York Department of State. Meridian Strategies, LLC. OpenCorporates. Retrieved May 20, 2024, from https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ny/5447919 ↩︎
Top 75 Political Consultants 2022. (2022, October 24). City & State NY. http://archive.today/2024.05.20-233402/https://www.cityandstateny.com/power-lists/2022/10/top-75-political-consultants-2022/378630/%23justin-chae-hank-sheinkopf ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Chinn, N., & Venkatraman, S. (2019, March 14). Justin Chae | The Fast-Talking, Fast-Walking Local Canvasser. Washington Square News. http://archive.today/2024.05.20-010158/https://nyunews.com/uta/nyu-up-and-comers-2019/justin-chae-local-canvasser-political-consultant-meridian-strategies/ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Clients. Meridian Strategies. Retrieved April 15, 2019, from https://web.archive.org/web/20190415150645/http://meridiancampaigns.com/clients/ ↩︎ ↩︎
Abdus Samad Tanvir. LinkedIn. Retrieved May 20, 2024, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/abdus-samad-tanvir-157432227/ ↩︎ ↩︎
Pascus, B. 20 in Their Twenties 2022: Justin Chae. Crain’s New York. Retrieved December 19, 2023, from http://archive.today/2023.12.19-012015/https://www.crainsnewyork.com/awards/20-their-twenties-2022-justin-chae ↩︎
Press. Meridian Strategies. Retrieved May 20, 2024, from http://archive.today/2024.05.20-230915/https://meridiancampaigns.com/press ↩︎
MeridianStrategies. (2024, April 19). Meridian Strategies Canvassing Opportunity. Reddit. http://archive.today/2024.05.19-212102/https://www.reddit.com/r/NYCjobs/comments/1c81vyf/meridian_strategies_canvassing_opportunity/ ↩︎
O’Brien, R. D. (2024, May 9). Are R.F.K. Jr. Signature Gatherers Misleading New Yorkers for Ballot Access? The New York Times. http://archive.today/2024.05.10-152531/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/us/politics/rfk-signatures-ny.html ↩︎
Lis Smith [@Lis_Smith]. (2024, May 9). “NEW: @RobertKennedyJr can’t summon the grassroots support to get his spoiler campaign on the ballot, so his team is now hiding who they’re collecting signatures for. Like Donald Trump, he thinks he’s above the law.” [Post]. X (Formerly Twitter). http://archive.today/2024.05.19-183629/https://x.com/Lis_Smith/status/1788694028277473291 ↩︎
Stanage, N. (2023, June 20). RFK Jr.: Democrats divided on whether to attack or ignore. The Hill. http://archive.today/2023.06.20-152454/https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4057468-democrats-divided-biden-rfk-jr/ ↩︎
Amaryllis Fox [@amaryllisfox]. (2024, May 11). "@Lis_Smith assuming you know that the accused sub-contractor -- Meridian Strategies -- was introduced to the Kennedy Campaign’s ballot contractor by DNC strategist Joe Reubens of the Parkside Group, who described them as NYC’s “preeminent firm” and gave them his “unabashed endorsement."...” [Post]. X (Formerly Twitter). http://archive.today/2024.05.22-162048/https://x.com/amaryllisfox/status/1789331978241667281 ↩︎
Grace Piotrowski, PHR. LinkedIn. Retrieved October 13, 2024, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracepiotrowski/ ↩︎
Clients. Meridian Strategies. Retrieved May 20, 2024, from http://archive.today/2024.05.20-223832/https://meridiancampaigns.com/clients/ ↩︎