George Birnbaum

George Eli Birnbaum (born 1970) is an American political consultant. He worked on the United States congressional and senatorial races. In 1998, he moved to Israel to work as a consultant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, became his chief of staff, and afterwards formed a partnership with political consultant Arthur Finkelstein. He was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Atlanta, Georgia.

Early life

George Birnbaum was born in Los Angeles to Jewish immigrant parents. His father was an Auschwitz survivor and three of his grandparents were Holocaust survivors. When Birnbaum was four his family moved to Atlanta, where he attended elementary and high school. He attended the Florida Institute of Technology where he earned a bachelor's degree in Space Sciences.

Career

Birnbaum took his first paid position in a political campaign in 1992, signing onto Ohio Republican Congressman Bob McEwen’s reelection campaign. In the years following, he worked on campaigns in North Carolina, Florida and Virginia.

During the 1996 cycle, Birnbaum served as the deputy political director and director of survey research under National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato. Birnbaum managed Charlie Crist’s 1998 unsuccessful campaign against incumbent Senator Bob Graham in Florida.

After the 1998 cycle, Birnbaum consulted for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign. Birnbaum served as Netanyahu’s chief of staff, a position he held for a year and a half.

In 2003, Birnbaum went into partnership with American conservative political consultant Arthur Finkelstein. In 2008, he worked for the campaign of Nir Barkat for mayor of Jerusalem.

In 2010, Birnbaum helped with the campaign of Prime Minister Petr Nečas in the Czech Republic. He was project manager responsible for 2010 Viktor Orbán campaign.

In 2013, he incorporated Majoritas USA, LLC in Georgia as the American division of Romanian political technology and data agency Majoritas. The agency was founded in 2008 by entrepreneur Lucian Despoiu and actor Stelian Nistor. Previous international political clients include Hungary's Viktor Orbán, Indonesia's Joko Widodo, France's Marine Le Pen, Bulgaria's Sergei Stanishev, Sri Lanka's Maithripala Sirisena, and Ghana's John Mahama.

In 2015, US presidential candidate Ben Carson asked Birnbaum to serve as his chief policy advisor for Israel and the Middle East during the 2016 primaries.

In July 2017, Birnbaum became a partner at Avenue Strategies, a government affairs and political consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.

Birnbaum has been active in Israel, continuing to help Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu political party in national elections in Israel.

In 2019, Birnbaum became a managing director for Mercury Public Affairs.

In the 2020 Kyiv local election Birnbaum worked for incumbent Mayor Vitali Klitschko

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