In the premiere of Policy Wins, host Patrick Kalie sits down with Sean Kennedy, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs at the National Restaurant Association, to unpack one of the most significant grassroots victories of the past year: defeating a Massachusetts ballot measure to eliminate the tip credit. Sean walks us through how his team activated servers and restaurant operators across the state, coordinated a unified message, and achieved a 64–36% victory — all in one of the most progressive states in the country.

How Small Public Affairs Teams Can Stay Ahead of Every Relationship
Most public affairs teams know who their power players are: the committee chair, the agency contact, the coalition partner who can actually move things. The real problem is everyone else. The staffers doing the actual drafting. The mid-level regulator who doesn’t matter yet. The aligned group you’ve met twice and never followed up with. Those […]
