Team Category: State and Local Advocacy

Jerry Strickland

Jerry Strickland is Principal and Texas Director at BGR, where he practices at the federal, state, and local levels. Leading BGR’s Austin office, Jerry helps companies navigate government to effectively position themselves for growth. He has successfully assisted companies in passing legislation at the state and federal levels, navigated rulemakings before agencies, and put his clients in front of frontline decision-makers at all levels of government to succeed.

As part of his work with BGR’s Commerce and State practices, Jerry represents clients in a variety of industries, including oil & gas, semiconductors, cryptocurrency, cybersecurity, transportation, health care, mental health, trade, and waterways. Working with the Coalition for a Fair and Open Port and energy companies along the Houston Ship Channel, Jerry and his clients led the federal advocacy effort for the widening and deepening of the Houston Ship Channel to achieve authorization, appropriation and a new start for construction decision from the White House in less than one budget cycle. Jerry also worked recently to help a leading international semiconductor company with its multi-billion expansion. BGR’s Texas office recently led the location selection, incentives negotiations and infrastructure improvement agreements with state, county, city, and school district officials. The $40 billion project is approved for a $200+ million tax incentive and is the largest foreign-direct investment in Texas history. The project also secured more than $3 billion in federal CHIPS Act funds as part of a Congressionally-passed program BGR also assisted clients with passage. Jerry also served as the Executive Director of the FABSS Texas Coalition, a coalition of Texas semiconductor manufacturers, which he represented before electricity and natural gas regulators in Texas. Jerry also serves as the Executive Director of the FABSS Texas Coalition, a coalition of Texas semiconductor manufacturers, which he represents before electricity and natural gas regulators in Texas. 

Prior to joining BGR, Jerry served as Governor Greg Abbott’s appointee to lead the Texas Office of State-Federal Relations, where he ran Texas’s federal affairs office and was lead advisor to the Governor on federal issues. While leading the office, Jerry helped secure billions of dollars in disaster relief funding to Texas to recover from Hurricane Harvey. 

Jerry also served on the Department of Interior’s Royalty Policy Committee, advising the Secretary on issues related to the determination of fair market value and the collection of revenue from energy and mineral resources on federal lands.

Jerry spent nearly 12 years at the Texas Attorney General’s office as then-Attorney General Abbott’s executive advisor, communications director and spokesperson. In this role, Jerry was part of executive leadership addressing EPA, ACA, child support and school finance litigation at every level of the legal system, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prior to his career in public service, Jerry’s career had him at the intersection of government and the media, spending a decade as a news reporter, investigative journalist and news anchor at television stations in Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi. His work has been featured on CNN, CBS News, ABC News and the Weather Channel.

Loren Monroe

Loren Monroe, a Principal at BGR Group, serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Board as well as one of the firm’s spokesmen. He chairs the firm’s bipartisan State & Local Advocacy Practice while lobbying on behalf of energy, health, financial services, technology and trade clients. Loren has more than 25 years of experience in Washington’s political, business and public policy arenas.

In his role, Loren helps clients at the state and federal levels achieve policy solutions and secure business opportunities in Washington and state capitals across the country through direct lobbying before Congress, governors, state legislators and attorneys general. He is skilled at helping clients align federal and state advocacy strategies as well as enlisting state and local leaders to support clients’ federal priorities. He also helps clients to obtain grants and appropriations from federal and state agencies. Due to the quality of service and results that are consistently delivered, Loren has represented many of his clients for more than 20 years. 

Loren frequently serves as the campaign manager for complex lobbying efforts that require coordinated state and federal outreach across multiple states and involving several lobbying and public relations firms. Highlights of his lobbying successes include securing federal permitting approval for the nation’s first large scale offshore wind project, Congressional appropriations for new research buildings on a university campus, legislation to carveout scrap recyclers from the Superfund program, state funding for digital skilling programs as well as discretionary economic development incentives by governors.

Prior to joining BGR, Loren served at the public affairs firm Cassidy & Associates. He served on the legislative staff of former Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) when he served as Chairman of the Budget Committee and as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. Loren previously served on the Finance staff of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) as well as on the President George H.W. Bush reelection campaign.

Loren currently serves on the Finance Committees of the Republican Governors Association and the Republican State Leadership Committee. He is often invited to speak before audiences on the political and legislative outlooks at the federal and state levels.

Governor Haley Barbour

Governor Haley Barbour, Founding Partner of BGR Group, returned to BGR in January 2012 after serving two consecutive terms as Governor of Mississippi, including two years as the Chairman of the Republican Governors Association. At BGR, he heads advocacy coalitions, lobbies on behalf of clients and remains a major force in Republican party politics and elections.

Gov. Barbour began his political career in 1968, dropping out of college to work on Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign; in 1976, after supporting Ronald Reagan for the GOP nomination, he ran Gerald Ford’s fall campaign in the Southeast. In 1982, he ran for U.S. Senate in Mississippi but lost to incumbent John C. Stennis. Gov. Barbour later served as Political Director of the Reagan White House. In 1987, he founded the government affairs firm that became BGR Group.

From 1993 to 1997, Gov. Barbour served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, managing the 1994 Republican surge that led to GOP control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. In 1996 Barbour wrote Agenda for America, A Republican Direction for the Future.
In 2003, he was elected Governor of Mississippi, assuming office in January 2004. During his tenure, Gov. Barbour led his state to adopt what the Wall Street Journal called the most comprehensive tort reform in the country. His team generated numerous large economic projects in the energy, aerospace and automotive fields, including Toyota’s selection of Blue Springs, Miss., for the company’s newest U.S. auto assembly plant, which was the most sought-after economic development project in the United States that year. In Gov. Barbour’s eight years as governor, per capita income in the state increased by 34 percent.

After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, Gov. Barbour received national recognition from the bipartisan American Legislative Exchange Council for his swift response to the worst natural disaster in American history. In 2015, he published America’s Great Storm: Leading Through Hurricane Katrina, a memoir of the year after the storm from the Governor’s perspective and lessons in leadership from the mega-disaster. For his efforts to rebuild the Mississippi Gulf Coast, he received the Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award. Other awards during his tenure as Governor included being named Governor of the Year by Governing Magazine, receiving the Gulf Guardian Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in recognition of his work to rebuild Gulf Coast ecosystems, and receiving the Adam Smith Award from BIPAC to honor his pursuit of the principles of free enterprise.

The Hill newspaper has listed Gov. Barbour as one of Washington’s top lobbyists annually since his return to the firm in 2012. He also received the prestigious Bryce Harlow Foundation Business-Government Relations Award in 2018. He has also been elected to the Hall of Fame of the American Political Consultants. In 2019, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appointed Gov. Barbour to serve as Chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also called The Nation’s Report Card.

Gov. Barbour received his J.D. in 1973 from the University of Mississippi, which now has two centers named after him: the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence, which provides real world experience in manufacturing to students majoring in engineering, business and accounting, and the Haley Barbour Center for the Study of American Politics, which offers classes and symposia on campaigns and elections as well as an intersession for students each January in Washington.

A native of Yazoo City, Miss., Governor Barbour still resides in his hometown with his wife, Marsha. They have two sons and seven grandchildren.

Ellen Brown

Ellen Brown is a Senior Policy Analyst working with the firm’s State and Local Advocacy and Appropriations Practices. She joined BGR in 2018. She provides comprehensive legislative and political reports and analyses while working alongside state and local governments, Congress, the White House, federal agencies, and political committees. Her research helps clients understand the implications of proposed policies and legislation. 

As a member of several women’s political groups, Ellen leads the team’s women in government outreach. She also represents BGR at various events with state and local officials. Drawing on her past involvement in political campaigns, Ellen provides insightful analysis and valuable guidance to clients throughout each election cycle.

Before joining BGR, Ellen worked as a Legislative Aide in the Virginia General Assembly and as Director of Operations for a Virginia legislative campaign. She managed communications and coordinated local field activities for statewide races in that capacity. Ellen began her career in political media and digital marketing, composing and editing numerous political newsletters for distribution to millions of registered voters nationwide.