Recently, the Ohio Senate introduced SB80 to change the election of state supreme court justices and state appellate court judges from non-partisan to partisan elections. In addition to his testimony in the Ohio House of Representatives on the companion legislation, Dr. Taylor testified before the Ohio Senate Local Government and Elections Committee in support of the bill. You can read his written testimony here, and watch the video of the proceedings here.

Recently, members of the Ohio House of Representatives introduced legislation to change elections for judges of the Ohio Courts of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court from non-partisan to partisan. Currently, Ohio’s appellate judges are elected without the benefit of having their party identified on the ballot, leaving voters without a key piece of information they need to make informed choices. The legislation would add that party label to the ballot.

With his specialty knowledge in judicial elections research, Dr. Taylor offered expert witness testimony in support of the legislation in front of the House Government Oversight Committee.

You can read the written testimony here and watch a video of the proceedings, including Dr. Taylor’s testimony and responses to the Committee’s questions here.

The American Political Science Association (APSA) is pleased to announce that Travis N. Taylor, a second year PhD student at the University of Kentucky, has been named as a 2017-2018 APSA Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) Fellow, Spring Cycle.

“As a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, I am pleased to accept this Fellow designation from APSA and to represent the Cherokee people in the discipline of political science,” Taylor said.

The MFP was established in 1969 to increase the number of under-represented scholars in the political science discipline. Since 1969, the APSA Minority Fellowship has designated more than 500 Fellows, both funded and unfunded, and contributed to the completion of doctoral political science programs for over 100 individuals. Fall fellows are college or university seniors, graduates, or Master’s students who plan on applying to a PhD program in political science. Spring fellows are first and second year PhD students in political science. APSA Minority Fellows are very active in the discipline as faculty members, researchers, and mentors. Visit www.apsanet.org/mfp to learn more about the APSA MFP program and recent fellows.

Founded in 1903, the American Political Science Association (APSA) is the leading professional organization for the study of political science and serves more than 13,000 members in more than 80 countries. For additional information on APSA diversity and inclusion programs, please visit us online at http://www.apsanet.org/diversityprograms or emaildiversityprograms@apsanet.org.

Travis was recently tapped to serve as a Guest Editor for Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics. Guest Editors, according to the site’s policy, assist the full-time Ballotpedia staff in curating accurate and non-biased information on American politics.

“Ballotpedia has proven to be a valuable resource to me in a lot of my professional and academic research,” Travis said upon his selection. “Being selected to serve as a Guest Editor is a great honor, and I look forward to the task.”

Given the website’s tightly controlled standards for content accuracy, formatting, and non-bias, among other standards, Guest Editors are required to pass a written exam and complete an application for review by the Ballotpedia staff. Travis achieved a perfect score on the written exam.

To view Travis’ Ballotpedia user page, click here. To learn more about Ballotpedia.org, click here.

Travis has been selected as a Fellow in the 2015-2016 Loyola University (New Orleans) Institute of Politics (IOP) program. The program is the premier course for emerging political leaders in the Greater New Orleans area.

Every year, the IOP has a competitive slate of applicants, according to IOP’s Executive Director, Tommy Screen. This year’s class was selected from over 60 applicants.

“This is another tremendous opportunity for me to continue my academic and practical pursuit of politics,” Travis said of his selection to the IOP. “At Loyola’s IOP, I’ll have a chance to learn from some of the best of the best in New Orleans and Louisiana politics.”

Through an 18-part series of lectures on Loyola’s Uptown/Carrollton campus, IOP Fellows interact “with elected officials, political management consultants, media experts, social scientists, and other professionals whose work has given them invaluable insight into the political process.”

Notable IOP alumni include numerous elected officials, including US Senators, Congressmen, and state legislators, as well as popular political observers and journalists.

“Over the course of the next few months, I look forward not only to hearing from the lecturers, but also to interacting with and getting to know my peers in the program and working with them in years to come to make New Orleans and the surrounding areas a better place,” Travis concluded.

The program runs through mid-March.

To learn more about Loyola’s Institute of Politics, visit http://loyno.edu/iop/.

In their most recent edition of “Guide: How to Get What You Want Out of Congress,” CQ Roll Call, drawing on the expertise of political practitioners and Capitol Hill staff members, quoted Travis at length. CQ Roll Call is one of the nation’s leading Congressional news and analysis organizations, providing readers with valuable insight into the legislative and political process.

Travis was quoted in the Know the Audience section of the Guide, advising constituents involved in grassroots advocacy to contact their own member of Congress, rather than blanketing all 535 Members. Travis’ expertise in the area comes from his time managing the mail program in a Congressional office, an experience that has informed how he advises grassroots advocacy clients as a consultant.

“Being a part of CQ’s grassroots guide is meaningful to me because contacting Congress is such an important role our citizenry can play in the process,” Travis said. “To make democracy work, it has to be participatory. Citizens must get involved in the process, or the process will flounder.”

The Ultimate Guide to Getting Congress to Listen is available for free download from CQ Roll Call here.

In last night’s historic Republican sweep, Travis had a successful night as well. Consulting for 22 races in five states, Travis’ clients won 17 of the 22 while losing only three. Two of his Louisiana campaigns are headed for a December runoff.

“It was a great night for Republicans, for Innovative, and for me,” Travis said as the results showed tremendous gains for the GOP across the nation. “But the fun’s not over yet!”

Innovative Advertising, LLC, where Travis works as a Political Account Coordinator, had an impressive record in yesterday’s election as well. With some of the agency’s races still in flux, the People Who Think appear to have won more than 35 races, while coming up short in only two.

Travis specializes in state and local campaigns, and that is reflected in his record from last night. His record in state and local elections last night was 15-1 with one heading to a runoff.

State and local campaigns include races for governor, state offices, state legislatures, and more local races such as district attorney and mayoral.

“Smaller races are more enjoyable,” Travis said. “Candidates for these offices have an opportunity to have a greater impact on their community. As a consultant, I enjoy these races because the candidates are usually fresh faces with a genuine passion for service.”

Consulting on state and local races also drove Travis’ research on his Master’s Thesis at the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University in DC. His thesis examined the use of nationalization – invoking a national theme – in local elections.

“The work for us doesn’t end now, though. We have two runoffs to win in December and a whole year of state elections in 2015,” Travis concluded with a gleeful smirk.

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On Monday, August 25, 2014, Travis began teaching Political Management at the George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management. His role at GW as an online course facilitator will be in addition to his daily functions as a political account coordinator at Innovative.

In the new position, Travis is responsible for content delivery, grading, and building student relationships in an online format. He will be leading a class of more than 20 graduate students studying political management.

“Teaching has been a desire of mine since undergraduate,” Travis said of his new role. “When you have excellent professors who influence your life, as I did at UL, you want to pass that on to others. It’s the primary reason I went to graduate school.”

Not only is Travis teaching at the George Washington University, it’s his alma mater. He received his Master’s Degree in Political Management from the program he is now teaching.

“It’s exciting to get to return to GW as an instructor,” Travis continued. “I greatly appreciate the opportunity afforded to, and the faith placed in, me by Dr. Lara Brown, Dr. Michael Cornfield, and Dr. Shaun Herness.”

Professor Herness will be the instructor of record for the course Travis is facilitating.

During the semester, which runs for six weeks in the online format, Travis will teach one section of Fundamentals of Political Management, an introductory course to the graduate program.

“I’m very excited about this opportunity to help train the next generation of political operatives. They are undoubtedly very driven and professional students, so I’m looking forward to a great semester,” Travis concluded.

After more than two years working inside the Beltway, Travis is taking his talents and additional experience back to the Bayou State, where he began his career in politics.  Travis, who recently graduated from the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University, has joined the team at Innovative Advertising as a Political Account Coordinator.  In this new role, Travis is responsible for assisting with strategy development and works to ensure political projects flow through the agency as smoothly as politics allows.

Along with Innovative’s other new hires, Travis joins a dynamic and rapidly growing team.

“Travis is a first rate professional campaign manager,” said Gordon Reese, Innovative’s Director of Political Affairs, who has served as a consultant on some of Travis’ previous campaigns.  Reese went on to note that Travis is “calm and thoughtful even in the most stressful scenarios of a campaign.”

Innovative Advertising is a full-service advertising agency based in Mandeville, Louisiana, about 25 miles north of New Orleans.  The agency boasts a wide portfolio of both corporate and political advertising work.  The agency was recently named to Inc. Magazine’s list of Fastest Growing Companies.

“I’m excited to join the team at Innovative and to be back in Louisiana,” Travis said.  “Having worked with this team in the past, it’s thrilling to be on this side of the table with them.  I’m ready for this new adventure and challenge.  And, of course, to help elect Republicans to office!”

To see more information about Travis’ hiring, see Innovative’s newsletter, Brainwaves.