In 2022, a fateful moment shortly after moving from Alabama to Wisconsin led to Data and Community Affairs LLC being born.

Eight years earlier, I had “retired forever” from political campaigns — ending on what I believed was a high note: becoming the only person in American history to defeat a sitting Congressional Majority Leader in a primary (Dave Brat over Eric Cantor) and running what I thought would be my final Alabama race — Larry Stutts’ shocking 17,641 to 17,574 upset over longtime Appropriations Chairman Roger Bedford, a man widely considered unbeatable.

For eight years after that, I did no paid political work — not a dime — focusing entirely on nonprofit issue advocacy, though I was happy to give free advice on occasions such as when fellow Benedictine High School grad (Richmond VA) Steve Bannon called me to ask me how I won the Brat race so he could incorporate it into unveiling that Donald Trump really would run for President in 2016.

Eight years later at a Ron Johnson fundraiser in Wisconsin, I discovered later that I was the only one in a room of 300 people who did not realize I was standing in Tim Michels’ home — and that he would soon announce for Governor. The only person in the room who didn’t know the plan (me) soon thereafter broke my 8-year “retirement” from politics to become Political Director for Michels for Governor.

On a brutal post-Dobbs 2022 election night for Republicans, Michels delivered the second strongest performance of 26 gubernatorial challengers nationwide as of election night, on a night where even beloved US Senator Ron Johnson survived by less than 1 percent among the same voters.

Hearing that my eight-year abstinence from politics was broken, Byron Shehee recruited me into another effort — which resulted in electing Tom Arceneaux, the first white Republican mayor to ever be elected in a majority-Black city (Shreveport, defeating a sitting State Senator).

From there, it became clear: if we were going to build and retain the best grassroots team in the country — I could not stay exclusively in the nonprofit arena or on the political sidelines – we needed a political vehicle to keep them together between nonprofit cycles. 

The day after an election liberal groups like Souls to the Polls and many Soros-funded nonprofits keep their teams in place to continue to register and activate voters for months between elections so that by the time conservative groups re-engage a few months before an election conservative nonprofits are millions of votes behind and need to try to rehire leaders who had to take other jobs between elections. 

The only thing that has kept races close the last decade was Trump bringing in millions of new voters (in his early years 42% of his rally attendees would show up not registered to vote). But with him no longer on the ballot, the liberal between-elections nonprofit edge has played out in places like Virginia’s off-year 15-point loss in the Governor’s race and drop from 49 to 36 Republican members of the House. A vehicle was needed to keep conservatives from leaving the public arena altogether.

That vehicle is Data and Community Affairs LLC.

Whether our team is on a nonprofit effort one year or in the political arena another, teams need to do everything from:

• Placing 402,000 voter comparison pieces in the hands of conservative churchgoers who skipped 2020 (as Wisconsin flipped from a 20,000-vote Biden win to a 29,000-vote Trump win), or
• Breaking a 110-year national runoff turnout record (set in Los Angeles in 1915) during the Alabama election of Cindy Myrex.

The key is the same:

We built and maintained a team who knows how to win, lose sleep over your race, and will be crushed for a year if you lose — and ecstatic if you win. Unfortunately while most political campaign managers are hard-working, there are plenty of races lost only because there are some “grifters,” who border on con artists exploiting the political process for personal financial gain rather than what tactics make you most likely to win, and “swivel chair” consultants who only campaign from their desk without getting on the ground to get the pulse of the people.

Below is the launch of our new website.

Data and Community Affairs LLC

Call or Text 404.606.3163

Email: jpudner@dac-affairs.com

Precision Targeting. Relentless Field Execution. Proven Wins.

Data and Community Affairs LLC exists for one purpose:

Identify the right voters. Knock on the right doors. Win the right elections.

We believe campaigns are won where math meets shoe leather.

This page explains:

• Why we are the best fit to run your data targeting and door-to-door program.
• The history of wins that proves the model works.
• The team that executes at a professional level — and still knocks doors themselves in our Alabama, Milwaukee, and Mid-Atlantic offices.

Why We Are the Best Fit for Your Data & Door Program

Most firms claim they “do everything.”

We can. If you need TV, digital ads, focus groups, polling and event management we will do it, but …

… we focus on what we’ve been doing since the late 1980s — and what we’ve trained our 20-something leaders to master:

• Advanced voter targeting
• Strategic voter classification
• Field deployment & disciplined door execution
• Volunteer and paid canvasser integration
• Real-time feedback loops from doors back into targeting

Campaigns fail when they:

• Knock the wrong doors
• Waste time persuading immovable voters
• Demoralize volunteers by sending them to hostile voters
• Treat turnout and persuasion as the same task

We do not make those mistakes.

Decades before microtargeting was fashionable, we were:

• Removing likely Democrats from persuasion universes based on them buying Volvos instead of pickup trucks as far back as the 1980s (though we joked at the time that my first political boss George F. Allen owned both as an exception to the rule)
• Separating turnout lists from persuasion lists
• Labeling lists to protect volunteer morale
• Doubling down on voters most likely to respond

National media noticed.

• Fox News referred to John Pudner on-air as “Mr. Moneyball.”
• ESPN compared his modeling to a conservative Nate Silver.
• Sports Illustrated credited his basketball analytics work calculating player value and identifying which players would – or would not – excel if drafted.

Every voter falls into one of three categories:

• Turnout – With you. Make sure they vote.
• Persuasion – Can go either way, talk to them and figure out which issue wins them over and where our reports back to the candidate can help the candidate learn from voters as well.
• Do Not Contact – If you remind them when you are on the ballot, they remember they need to show up to stop you from being elected

Our job is to know which is which — before you waste a dollar.

A Record That Proves the Model Works

Early Legislative Takeovers

• Won 14 of first 17 Virginia legislative races in the 1990s
• Lived in three states between my college days and return to Wisconsin in 2022 – and in all three states ran low budget efforts for state-level Republican takeovers (VA, GA, AL)
• Led 27,000-signature statewide all-volunteer petition drive for Virginia LG candidate, including refusing submission until signatures secured in every county and independent city

Discipline wins.

As Owner of www.DAC-affairs.com, John Pudner’s history includes:

National Faith-Based Turnout

• Directed turnout in 16 battleground states for George W. Bush, including 500-vote win in Florida
• Only campaign manager in U.S. history to defeat a sitting Congressional Majority Leader (Eric Cantor) in a primary, including overcoming $5M vs. $20K early fundraising disadvantage

Referenda & Issue Campaigns

• 201–23 overall record
• School choice wins in LA, CA, VA, GA
• Near win in NJ against $48M teachers union opposition
• 185 coordinated mail pieces in a single Alabama cycle alongside massive door effort

Wisconsin Ground Game

• Built Wisconsin Faith & Freedom Coalition
• Distributed 402,000 voter comparison pieces
• Targeted church-attending 2020 non-voters
• Wisconsin shifted from 20K Democrat win to 29K Republican win

Data first. Field execution second. Message discipline always.

The Rest of the Team

Every senior leader knocks doors.

No exceptions. Just like UPS Executives first drive a UPS truck to make deliveries or Michels Corporation executives first dug local drainage ditches and small utility trenches long before bidding on projects to build subway tunnels beneath New York City’s waterways – we all knock on doors so we understand our canvassers updates and feed the key information back to the candidates and campaigns.

Southern Office – Vestavia Hills, Alabama

Holly Klucarich – Vice President

• Northern Wisconsin Director – Ron Johnson re-election
• Glenn Youngkin victory in Virginia
• Managed major field programs across TX, AZ, Midwest, New England – ran regional program in upper WI-7 featured in Restoration News for swinging conservative vote 7- to 10-points in her counties in an April 2025 Supreme Court election when the programs in the rest of the state showed a 0% improvement
• Elected Mayor at a young age
• Built commercial real estate sales & recruiting teams
• Deploys 1,000+ door-a-day teams within 72 hours of starting an effort.

Specialty: Rapid field deployment and execution discipline.

Alex Cucchiaro – Field and Operations Director

• Managed campaign against Debbie Wasserman Schultz
• Field Organizer – Rick Scott Senate & Ron DeSantis Governor
• Team achieved highest call volume in Florida statewide competition (2020)
• Founder & President – Republican Club of Sunrise, Florida (youngest & most diverse cabinet in Broward County)
• Only Faith & Freedom canvasser nationally to exceed 20,000 doors AFTER Kamala Harris added to the ticket

Specialty: Turning liberal regions competitive through volume and discipline.

Aubreigh Phillips – Youth & Campus Engagement Director

• Rapidly elevated door-to-door program post-high school
• Assisted in Capitol engagement & recorded voter messaging through videos for texts
• Recruits and mobilizes young conservative volunteers
• Identified early for exceptional retail voter engagement skills

Specialty: Youth recruitment and grassroots energy integration.

Mid-Atlantic Offices – Virginia & Carolinas

Lars Wiechmann – Multi-State Field Director

• Took over Central Wisconsin operations for Ron Johnson 2022
• Managed hundreds of canvassers nationally, including huge decisive Arizona campaign
• Built multi-state turnout & persuasion programs – including designing direct mail and door hangers
• Rebuilds underperforming field universes mid-cycle
• Maintains former staff bench in multiple states in all regions of the US for rapid deployment

Specialty: Large-scale battleground field management.

Midwestern Office – Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Spencer LaVerde – Director of Targeting & Logistics

• Leads Southeast Wisconsin vote-dense operations
• Managed 42 canvassers during 2024 Presidential – recruiting, onboarding, payroll etc.
• Coordinates petition drives & high-yield tabling operations
• Integrates door feedback into targeting refinement

Specialty: Translating data into disciplined walk lists.

Kelly Herrell – Voter Registration & Events Integration Director

• Led field for Ron Johnson campaign
• Worked with Americans for Prosperity
• Built major issue-driven advocacy events
• Ensures rallies & events convert into voter contact ROI

Specialty: Turning events into measurable voter impact.

Joe Meleski – Regional Field Director

• One of Wisconsin’s top-performing Trump-cycle canvassers
• Promoted first to Regional Field Director in 2025
• Built persuasion universes in competitive suburban districts

Specialty: Retail voter persuasion at scale.

Quan Kittler – Coalition & Community Targeting Director

• Senior leadership roles in statewide field programs
• Supervises high-volume voter contact teams including Michigan voter registration
• Builds sustained coalition presence in difficult communities
• Entrepreneurial background reinforcing accountability culture

Specialty: Authentic community-based persuasion.

Dr. Virginia Pratt – Urban Outreach Director

• Former Wisconsin Probation & Parole Agent
• Leads outreach to Milwaukee churches & community groups
• Mentors at-risk youth via Alma Center & EXPO Wisconsin
• Built early 1,000-door outreach surge in Milwaukee

Specialty: Urban engagement & trust-building.

Structural Integrity & Compliance

Our personnel also work with:

• www.wisconsinffc.com (501c3 issue education)
• www.freedomandfamilyaction.com (501c4 lobbying and up to 50% political efforts)

When projects exceed the scope of those entities, they are conducted exclusively through Data and Community Affairs LLC.

• No commingling of funds
• Formal time allocation
• Reimbursement tracking
• Strict compliance protocols

If you need precision targeting and disciplined door execution —

Call or text 404.606.3163.

Email jpudner@dac-affairs.com.

Let’s win your race.