Crisis Communications
Case Study
a James O’keefe-style infiltration
The Challenge
To ward against a James O’Keefe-style infiltration (and other attacks) of its network, a national organization that fights for multi-racial political power contracted with New Heights to put together a comprehensive crisis communications program for its staff, network and partner groups. We updated the organization’s crisis communications handbook and delivered a series of crisis communications webinar trainings for the network and allies.
Within days of finishing the last training in the series, we were alerted to an attempted infiltration of the exact type we’d been training the network on— happening in one of the organization’s target states.
The Approach
New Heights sprung into action, counseling the groups who were targeted on a tight plan to turn this massive potential vulnerability into a powerful media story that put the attackers back on their heels—and stopped the infiltration in its tracks. Working with groups on the ground, New Heights assessed the situation and gathered the facts: The attacker had ties to an out-of-state GOP political consultant who worked for many right-wing candidates and causes, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14).
We advised that we our legal strategy should inform our communications strategy. However, since voting had already commenced in the state, we swiftly moved to publicly disclose the story of good government and voting rights groups exposing the bad faith deception. We assisted in identifying appropriate reporters, crafting talking points and a narrative, and overseeing the operation from start to finish.
The Result
In the end, multiple exposes in state media outlets showcased a bumbling attempt to undermine democracy in the state—with the good guys prevailing.
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