Bill Burton (born August 9, 1977) is an American political consultant and communication strategist who served as Deputy White House Press Secretary in the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2011. Burton is the founder and president of Bryson Gillette, a political and strategic communications firm based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Early life and education

Burton was born in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

on August 9, 1977. He is the son of Troy Burton, who is African American, and a white mother. Burton graduated from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

, earning a bachelor's degree in English literature with a focus on African American literature.

Career

Burton worked as a press secretary for

Bill Luther William Paul Luther (born June 27, 1945) is an American politician and lawyer from Minnesota. Luther was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) member of the United States House of Representatives representing Minnesota's 6th congressional distr ...

. He was press secretary for

Tom Harkin Thomas Richard Harkin (born November 19, 1939) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States senator from Iowa from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representative for Io ...

from 2001 to 2003, and communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in the 2006 election cycle. He has worked on the campaigns of

Richard Gephardt Richard Andrew Gephardt (; born January 31, 1941) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who served as a United States Representative from Missouri from 1977 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was House Majority Leader fro ...

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...

, and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

. Burton signed on with candidate Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) after Gephardt dropped out of the presidential race of 2004. Kerry lost the White House to incumbent

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

after winning the Democratic nomination. In 2007, Burton joined the presidential campaign of

, where he worked as national press secretary. During the Obama administration, Burton served as Deputy White House Press Secretary under

Robert Gibbs Robert Lane Gibbs (born March 29, 1971) is an American communication professional who served as executive vice president and global chief communications officer of McDonald's from 2015 to 2019 and as the 27th White House Press Secretary from 20 ...

from December 2009 until February 2011. He was also a Special Assistant to the President during the same time. In the role, Burton served as an adviser to the president and was tasked with briefing reporters. Burton also frequently traveled with the president on domestic and international visits. Burton was the first White House employee to have an official

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account. Burton left the White House in February 2011. He was a co-founder and senior strategist with the Priorities USA Action super PAC, Referring to Priorities USA Action's "Stage" ad criticizing Mitt Romney before the

2012 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January ...

Frank Luntz Frank Ian Luntz (born February 23, 1962) is an American political and communications consultant and pollster, best known for developing talking points and other messaging for Republican causes. His work has included assistance with messagin ...

said “that ad alone has killed Mitt Romney in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

.” In January 2013, Burton helped open the Washington, D.C. office of

Global Strategy Group Global Strategy Group, often known by its initials GSG or simply as Global, is an American public relations and research firm. Founded in New York City in 1995, GSG has been described in the ''New York Times'' as a “a well-known Democratic consu ...

, a Public Relations firm based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

SKDKnickerbocker SKDK (formerly SKDKnickerbocker) is a public affairs and political consulting firm that specializes in working for Democratic Party politicians. It has offices in Washington, DC, New York City, Los Angeles, CA, and Albany, New York. The firm em ...

later hired Burton to open their California office in

. In 2020, he launched Bryson Gillette, a minority-owned political and strategic communications firm in

Howard Schultz's possible 2020 run

On January 28, 2019, it was reported that Burton, along with Steve Schmidt, had been hired to help consider a potential presidential run by former Starbucks CEO

Howard Schultz Howard D. Schultz (born July 19, 1953) is an American businessman and author who served as both chairman and CEO of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017, and as interim CEO since 2022. Schultz also owned the Seattle SuperSonics baske ...

. In September 2019, Schultz officially announced that he would not run in 2020, citing health concerns.

Personal life

In 2007, he married Laura Capps, daughter of former California congresswoman

Lois Capps Lois Ragnhild Capps (née Grimsrud; January 10, 1938) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1998 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 22nd District from 1998 to 2003 ...

. They have one son, Oscar, and lived in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

before divorcing. Burton married Kelly Ward Burton, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, on April 6, 2019.

References

External links

* 1977 births American political consultants Living people Obama administration personnel People from Buffalo, New York University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni {{Improve categories, date=July 2021