Tessa Gould, Executive Director

Tessa Gould is the Executive Director of The Lincoln Project, where she draws on her management and campaign experience, particularly her understanding of moderate political dynamics, as part of the broader national conversation.

Tessa has over three decades of campaign, communications, and policy experience, much of it focused on square states “in the middle”. She has served on the staff of two presidential campaigns, held senior positions with two U.S. Senators, worked for four Members of Congress, and has managed eight federal campaigns in “flyover country”. The best Democratic performance in any of those states was 32. She is 7-1.

She has been named one of the top “500 influencers in American Politics” and a “Top Influencer by State” for several years by Campaigns and Elections Magazine. In 2019, the magazine also awarded her “best Democratic campaign manager of the year” for leading Heidi Heitkamp’s 2018 Senate win in North Dakota. She was lauded by Republican operatives as “having run a perfect race. No errors.” Tessa has also been on the Politico Playbook “Power List” of women in Washington several times.

She joined the Lincoln Project because “politics in America should not be about seizing power or self-enrichment. An all-hands, bipartisan effort is necessary to defeat an authoritarian threat that is utilizing every available tool to gain control.”