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DAVE WENHOLD, CAE

Founding Partner
dwenhold@mwcapitol.com

Dave grew up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and received his B.A. in Political Science from Keene State College in New Hampshire. Dave then served as an aide for U.S. Senator Warren Rudman. After working for Rudman, he worked on many political campaigns at the federal, state and local levels.

Dave took a position with the Direct Impact Company, a premier grassroots lobbying firm in Washington, which specializes in strategic planning, analysis, implementation and troubleshooting for legislative campaigns. Dave was responsible for over 75 grassroots campaigns during his four-year tenure with the company and ran campaigns for many industries including defense, healthcare, manufacturing and private companies. These efforts resulted in billions of dollars for Direct Impact’s clients.

Dave then became the Director of Government Relations and Public Policy at the National Court Reporters Association where he was successful in lobbying the Judicial Branch, the Executive Branch and worked with Congress to earmark tens of millions of dollars for the court reporting profession.

After leaving NCRA, he then co-founded Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies.  In addition to his work for his firm, Dave served as President of the American League of Lobbyists from 2008-2010, an association representing the lobbying community. He is the founder of the ALL Capitol PurSuit Drive that holds an annual clothing drive on Capitol Hill for those American’s trying to re-enter the workforce. From 2004 through 2009, he was able to collect over 50,000 suits (valued at over $2.1 million) for fellow Americans from Members of Congress, the White House and the lobbying and association communities. He also is a frequent columnist for The Hill newspaper and writes articles pertaining to the lobbying and Hill communities.

Also, Dave served on the American Society of Association Executives Future Leaders Council as well as being a long-term veteran for the Government Relations Council. He also was selected as one of ASAE’s Future Leaders of America.  For Dave’s volunteer service with the Capitol PurSuit Drive, the President of the United States awarded Dave the “Call to Service” award which is the country’s highest award for citizen volunteerism.  In 2008, Dave was selected with three other lobbyists and named as one of the most effective association lobbyists in Washington by Association Trends.

Dave has appeared on television shows discussing lobbying and is often utilized as the “go-to” resource by media outlets like: AP, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The National Journal, The Hill, Roll Call, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times and numerous other papers and magazines.

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