Bernie Horn

Bernie Horn has worked in politics for more than 25 years as a lawyer, lobbyist, political consultant, policy director and communications trainer.

Bernie is the author of Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People, published in 2008, and the co-author of Voicing Our Values: A Message Guide for Candidates, published in 2012. He is currently a Senior Advisor for Progressive Majority Action Fund and the Public Leadership Institute, and was previously a Senior Fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, working on domestic policy and message framing. Between 2000 and 2008, Bernie was Senior Director for Policy and Communications at the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA). Among other things, he wrote CPA’s flagship policy books: eight editions of the Progressive Agenda for the States and two editions of the Progressive Platform for the States. While at CPA, he taught message framing to hundreds of elected officials and candidates.

From 1994 to 2000, Bernie was President of Strategic Campaign Initiatives, Inc., a political consulting firm that helped elect and reelect hundreds of federal, state and local officials. Additionally, he helped win issue campaigns for increased gun control, tobacco taxes, and health care, and against casino gambling and restrictions on abortion. Between 1988 and 1994, Bernie directed legislative strategy in all state legislatures for Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign), and served as one of the chief lobbyists for the Brady Bill, drafted and lobbied for the federal ban on semiautomatic assault weapons, and conceived the federal ban on handgun sales to minors. Earlier, he was a campaign manager and issues director for congressional campaigns. Bernie is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and the Georgetown University Law Center.