ERICA WALTERS
Northern California
Erica Walters is the Principal Consultant at Terris, Barnes & Walters. Prior to joining Terris, Barnes & Walters in early 1998, Erica Walters received her political training in the trenches of over 30 campaigns throughout the country. Today, Walters specializes in federal races, independent expenditure/527 campaigns and state legislative caucus work. She is personally involved in every aspect of the firm’s work, from message and strategy formulation to creative development to art direction and even to ensuring that post offices across America move the firm’s work on time, every time.
Before finishing college at Wesleyan University, she managed her first two races in Connecticut. The first, a state legislative race, provided a good introduction to the hard-knocks world of political campaigns when her candidate was declared the loser on election night, called by the Secretary of State the next morning and declared the winner, only to be called back an hour later and told the first count was right. A contrarian even at a young age, Walters has been hooked ever since.
In 1994, Walters worked for the Montana House and Senate Democratic Caucus. With a territory that stretched over 500 miles along Montana’s Hi-Line and included 24 legislative races, she helped manage everything from fundraising to field operations to media buying. In the Democrats’ worst year in decades (both nationally and in the state), Walters lost no incumbents. In the early part of the 1996 cycle, she served as joint caucus director, moving south for the end of 1996 as Coordinated Campaign director in Wyoming. Following a brief stint back on the east coast to manage an Annapolis, Maryland mayor’s race in 1997, Walters moved to San Francisco and joined her current firm. She became a partner in January 2003 and is honored to help elect Democratic candidates and further progressive causes.