Cheryl Benton

A principal at the Dewey Square Group, Benton provides strategic counsel to corporate, political and non-profit clients. During more than two decades of experience managing grassroots and grass tops campaigns, Benton has helped guide statewide campaigns, state and local legislative initiatives and corporate public affairs campaigns.

In the 2006 election cycle, she worked with the Senator Claire McCaskill’s campaign and with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In 2004, Benton was the National Base Vote Director for the Democratic National Committee and initiated the first ever national Base Vote Training Day and is credited with the deployment of more than 150 senior level political operatives to 8 key battleground states preceding the Presidential Election. And in 2004, Benton formed a partnership with Groundswell Communications, a collaboration that provided telephone marketing services to political and corporate clients.

She also founded the Faith Finance Group, an organization designed to help small minority businesses secure capital to help them thrive and grow.

In 2000, Benton served as the Democratic National Committee’s Mid-Atlantic Political Director during the presidential campaign, guiding the coordinated campaigns in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia and the District of Columbia. In 1994, Benton managed the successful re-election effort for Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran. Shortly after, she worked in Congress for Senator Barbara Mikulski as her national political director and liaison to the Senate Democratic leadership. In 1997 and 2001 Benton counseled Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy during his re-election campaigns. In 1998, Benton ran the successful campaign for Anthony Williams, Mayor, Washington, D.C.

Recently, Benton served as the Director of Outreach for the Save Darfur Coalition’s Rally on the National Mall, which drew an estimated 1 million participants.