For over twenty years, Jess O’Connell has worked to advance progressive people and policies all across the United States. Where solutions don’t exist, Jess builds them. O’Connell is the co-founder and CEO of NEWCO Strategies, a woman and LGBTQ-owned firm. NEWCO has worked with leaders and organizers on over 300 projects related to strategy, management, programs, and design for campaigns and organizations working on economic fairness, civil and human rights, and democracy and voting rights. 

In 2024, Jess also co-founded the Democracy Security Project, a one-stop shop for safety and security support, training, and resources for anyone facing new or urgent threats to themselves or their work. DSP has reached over 500 organizations, and trained over 3,000 people across 47 states.  

Following the 2016 elections, Jess took over as the CEO at the Democratic National Committee where she oversaw an historic reorganization and reset for the DNC. During her tenure, Democrats won elections across the country, including 36 state legislative flips from red-to-blue and record-breaking statewide victories in New Jersey, Virginia and Alabama. She paved the way for groundbreaking expansion of the data ecosystem and the exchange of voter contact data.

Over her career, Jess has supported candidates up and down the ballot. In 2019, Jess served as a Senior Advisor to Pete Buttigieg where she led the early states strategy resulting in a history-making 1st place finish in Iowa and 2nd place finish in New Hampshire. As Executive Director of EMILY’s List, the largest political organization for women in the world, Jess led efforts to help elect the most diverse Congress in history at that time. She oversaw state and local programs to elect over 250 women.

Jess has held senior positions with advocacy groups at the intersection of policy and politics. At progressive think tank Center for American Progress, she worked on projects ranging from income inequality to the White House Summit on Working Families. At the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Jess organized more than 400 NGOs, academic institutions, Fortune 500 companies, and military Generals to advance development and diplomacy for international affairs programs.

Jess has helped produce and run events and protests in DC, Texas, and Florida. In 2020, Jess organized and implemented the first National COVID-19 Remembrance held on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. with twenty-thousand empty chairs on the National Mall to represent a fraction of the over 200,000 lives lost due to COVID-19.  The Remembrance event was featured on the front page of the NYT, CNN, the Washington, Post, CBS News, ABC News, Reuters, and more than 50 other national and local news clips. It was also featured in numerous “Pictures of the Day” by media outlets such as Axios, and Politico, and highlighted by Sen. Hirono (D-HI) during a Senate Judiciary Hearing. 

In 2018, O’Connell partnered with Voto Latino to execute the #EndFamilyDetention rally at the border in Tornillo, TX to call attention to the executive order that separated nearly 2,000 migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

In 2023,  O’Connell partnered with SEE to produce Walkout2Learn which organized thousands of students from over 300 schools across Florida in protest of “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, book bans, and the erasure of AP African American history curriculum. The statewide walkouts and demonstrations included a traditional press conference at the state Capitol and the first-ever Gen Z press conference with influencers in Miami. 

Jess began her advocacy work in Colorado where she served as the 1st woman Director of the AIDS Walk. She went on to work on Congressional campaigns in Colorado, Illinois, and her home state of Arizona, where she grew up marching for civil rights to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.  

For five years, Jess served as Founder and CEO of Youth Trek, an organization for underserved girls. Jess curated trips from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Atlanta, New York and Philadelphia to meet with women leaders from Nike, Coke, Getty Images, CARE, Alvin Ailey, NBC Today Show, Ralph Lauren, the Centers for Disease Control, and others. 

Jess has appeared on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, & more.