Brian H. Kildee
BKildee@groundswell.net

Brian Kildee has an extensive political, legislative and communications background, with an emphasis on creating strategic links between lobbying efforts and field campaigns.

Before joining Groundswell, Brian spent more than a decade at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. As a lobbyist for the Teamsters, Brian specialized in issues that required working across party lines and with non-traditional coalitions, including employer groups. He served as the union’s lead for immigration, the beverage industry, military manufacturing, prescription drug benefits and energy – with a focus on oil and gas development – from 1999 to 2004.

In 2004, Brian was named Strategic Coordinator, overseeing the union’s political and legislative messaging. Brian overhauled the Teamsters approach to talking to members about issues, establishing a system that ensured coordination between the union’s efforts on Capitol Hill and its message in the field.

In 2007, Brian was appointed to Assistant to General Secretary-Treasurer C. Thomas Keegel, the second highest official in the Teamsters and head of the union’s finances. As a member of Keegel’s management team, Brian worked directly with fifteen department directors to ensure that the General Secretary-Treasurer’s policies were carried out, and he created a communications structure to promote key programs.

Before joining the Teamsters, Brian managed campaigns at the municipal, county and state legislative levels. In 1998, Brian was the GOTV Coordinator for Joe Hoeffel – one of only two Democratic candidates to beat Republican incumbents that cycle.

Brian earned a bachelor’s degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland. He began his career in politics at the age of five, working on his mother’s first campaign for the Gaithersburg City Council. He and his wife, Laura Baptiste, live in the historic National Park Seminary in Silver Spring, Maryland.