Contributor

Karl Frisch

Syndicated Columnist and Longtime Political Strategist

You can follow Karl on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube or sign-up to receive his columns and updates about his work and upcoming media appearances by email. You can also visit his website at KarlFrisch.com.

The views expressed in these columns are Karl Frisch's alone and were not prepared, promoted, or approved in his capacity as executive director of Allied Progress.

Over nearly two decades, Karl Frisch has earned a national reputation for creative strategies and effective execution of both advocacy and electoral communications campaigns.

A fixture on the progressive talk radio circuit, Karl appears Thursday mornings on the Stephanie Miller Show and has guest hosted for the likes of Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, Leslie Marshall, and Ring of Fire — all nationally syndicated. He writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column and has been widely quoted in print and interviewed on various broadcast and cable news programs.

Karl landed his first political job in college, working for conservatives first at the local level and later on the national stage. In 2000, he traveled across the country doing press advance and field work for Senator John McCain‘s first presidential campaign. Afterwards, Karl came out of two closets at once as a gay man and a progressive. Doubly liberated, he served as field director for Jim Hahn‘s 2001 come-from-behind victory as Mayor of Los Angeles, and in 2002 as deputy communications director of the California Democratic Party when it swept every statewide office for the first time in nearly a century.

He next joined the renowned new media team of Howard Dean‘s 2004 presidential campaign, which revolutionized the use of the Internet as an organizing, communications, and political fundraising tool.

In 2005, Karl was named press secretary for Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter of New York and Democrats on the House Rules Committee. He was instrumental that year in helping to expose corruption and a pattern of ethics abuses by Congressional Republicans – issues that would define the next election. He then served as national press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the 2006 election cycle that saw Democrats regain the Senate majority.

Karl is perhaps best known for his work of nearly five years as communications director and then as a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, the nations premier progressive media watchdog. Karl developed the organization’s long-term strategy to target Fox News as a political actor and was instrumental in building the backbone of the organization’s rapid response communications structure, establishing a state of the art operation that has since become a model of best practices for progressive organizations throughout the country.

A Californian by birth and a longtime resident of our nation’s capital, Karl currently lives with his boyfriend in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.