Jay Morgan is a partner in the NFRN office in Atlanta. For over twenty years, Jay Morgan has provided candidates, corporations, and pro-business associations a solid strategic plan for the execution of public affairs tactics. He has been involved at the highest levels of Republican politics in Georgia and throughout the Southeast since 1984, when he became the youngest Executive Director of a Republican Party organization in the country in his home state of Georgia. Applying grassroots and telemarketing strategies to fundraising for the first time in Georgia, he led the effort to double the party’s donor base at a critical time in its development. He developed the targeting system which is still used to identify vulnerable incumbents and winnable open seats in legislative races. As a consultant to over twenty-five state, federal, and local campaigns as well as a regional political operative for the 1988 Bush for President Campaign and the Republican National Committee, he has experience in directing strategic campaigns that is unparalleled among Atlanta-based public affairs specialists.
In 1990, he served as campaign manager for the Isakson for Governor Campaign (47%) and has served as a key strategist for Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senator Johnny Isakson (R- GA), Mac Collins, and former Congresswoman Tillie Fowler (R-FL). Following the 1992 elections, he served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Collins and directed both his re-election campaign in 1994 as well as the internal campaign to win Collins a seat on the prestigious House Ways and Means Committee where he still serves.
In the course of representing some of Georgia’s leading corporations and business organizations, Jay Morgan has developed a reputation for building strong coalitions to withstand controversy on tough issues. He has a thorough understanding of tax incentives legislative strategies and strong working relationships with both parties in that regard. He was heavily involved in the telecommunications deregulation legislation at both the federal and state level. He was the lead strategist in passing tax legislation that resulted in securing long term commitments from the major sports franchises in the city of Atlanta at no cost to the taxpayers. During the 2003 session of the Georgia General Assembly, he provided strategic and tactical leadership in passing legislation that will allow businesses to offer unsolicited proposals to the state Department of Transportation thereby putting Georgia on the cutting edge of public-private partnerships to address pressing infrastructure needs.
Embracing the entrepreneurial spirit instilled in him by his father and grandfather (for whom he is named), he founded his own firm in 1996 after serving as Senior Vice President of the former government relations firm of Edington, Wade, and Associates. Currently, he serves on both the Board of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Governors for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a premier state-based “think tank”. Previously, he has served as Federal Affairs Chairman for the State Chamber of Commerce and as Chairman of a special task force to review charter school applications for the State Board of Education.
At the invitation of the International Republican Institute, he has traveled to Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Ukraine to train aspiring candidates and party leaders in these emerging democracies. A member of the State 4H Advisory Board, Jay and his wife, Laura, a former Presidential appointee in the George H. W. Bush administration, make their home in Atlanta with their three children: Caroline (12), Jason (9), and Victoria (6).
