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George birnbaum on fnc hannity 3 17 15
George E. Birnbaum is an American international political consultant. He was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and has worked on dozens of United States Congressional and Senatorial races. In 1998 he moved to Israel to serve as a consultant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, became his chief of staff, and afterwards formed a partnership with political consultant Arthur Finkelstein. His work includes polling, strategy, paid media and grassroots coalition building, developing and implementing campaign strategies. During his career, George Birnbaum has worked on campaigns on 5 continents and has helped elect over 15 Presidents and Prime Ministers worldwide.
Contents
- George birnbaum on fnc hannity 3 17 15
- George birnbaum on cnn newsroom 7 27 14
- Childhood and Education
- Early Career
- International Career
- References
George birnbaum on cnn newsroom 7 27 14
Childhood and Education
George Birnbaum was born in Los Angeles California to immigrant parents. His father was a survivor of Auschwitz and three of his grandparents we all Holocaust survivors. At the age of four, George's family moved to Atlanta, GA where he grew up attending elementary and high school. Birnbaum attended the Florida Institute of Technology where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Space Sciences.
Early Career
After having founded his university's chapter of College Republicans and volunteering on several Congressional campaigns, 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 more congressional races, including 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 worked on two dozen races in an election where Republicans broke the historical pattern and won two seats in the U.S. Senate. Following the 1996 cycle, Birnbaum managed Charlie Crist’s 1998 unsuccessful challenger campaign against incumbent Senator Bob Graham in Florida. A race that is considered pivotal in launching Charlie Crist's statewide career and led to his eventual election as Governor of Florida.
International Career
It was after the 1998 cycle that 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.
After serving Prime Minister Netanyahu, Birnbaum took a hiatus from political work, spending the next two years concentrating on international philanthropy and charitable work. In 2003, Birnbaum went into partnership with American conservative political consultant Arthur Finkelstein.
Since then, Birnbaum has consulted and managed campaigns throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America. including the successful campaigns of Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon, Chancellor of Austria Alfred Gusenbauer, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Sergei Stanishev, Prime Minister of Romania Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi, and President of Serbia Boris Tadic. In 2008, they worked to elect Nir Barkat as mayor of Jerusalem, and in 2009 they helped Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party become the third largest party in Israel – a position of strength which resulted in Mr. Lieberman’s ascension to the position of Foreign Minister in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cabinet.
In 2010 Birnbaum helped with electing Prime Minister Peter Necas in the Czech Republic at a time when the free-market political party ODS was on the verge of losing. Also in 2010 the Birnbaum helped the center-right Fidesz party win a sixty percent majority in the Hungarian parliament, a record-setting achievement for any political party in any country since the founding of the European Union. Then again in 2014, he helped re-elect Prime Minister Victor Orban in Hungary with a two-thirds majority making it the first time in European history to re-elect a Prime Minister with such a large majority
In 2013, Mr. Birnbaum was integral in advising Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Lieberman of Israel to unite their two parties and run as a single party in the Israeli national elections. A strategy that helped re-elect Prime Minister Netanyahu as Prime Minister
In late 2014, Mr. Birnbaum was part of the team that provided the President of Azerbaijan the first ever “western-style” election-day exit surveys that were published in real time on the national news. This involved the training of over 1,000 local field personnel and the establishment of a data collection center in Baku.
2014 also saw Mr. Birnbaum working on national campaigns in the Republic of Moldova and Zanzibar. Early in 2015 he worked on the national campaign in Israel that saw Prime Minister Netanyahu re-elected to an unprecedented 4th term as well as having worked on the Presidential elections in Nigeria.
In 2016, Birnbaum oversaw research and messaging for the successful re-eection campaign of President Edgar Lungu of Zambia. Dr. Ben Carson asked George to come on board as his chief policy advisor for Israel and the Middle East. In addition to those duties, Mr. Birnbaum also co-chaired debate preparation for Dr. Carson as well as help develop communications for the campaign.
2017 has already seen activity for Mr. Birnbaum in Presidential elections in Serbia as well as preparing for work in Colombia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Most recently, in July of 2017, George Birnbaum became a partner at Avenue Strategies, a full service government affairs and political consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. It's partners include Barry Bennett and Ed Brookover, both of whom Birnbaum met while working on the Carson Presidential campaign.