Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Round Table with Eric Bearse and Jason Johnson
Eric Bearse ’93
Eric Bearse is an experienced political professional who served as the lead speechwriter for former Texas Governor Rick Perry for much of the last 17 years, including two campaigns for president and two campaigns for governor. Eric also wrote remarks for the presidential campaign of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. His speechwriting clients also include Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Senator John Cornyn and Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. He has written numerous major addresses, including: four gubernatorial inaugural speeches, more than a half dozen state convention speeches, two presidential announcement speeches, a major speech on “Trumpism” and its impact on the future of the Republican Party, and dozens of policy speeches as well as commencement addresses.
A 24-year veteran of Republican politics, Eric Bearse also provides general and communications consulting to various candidates, offers public affairs services to numerous public and private entities, and frequently produces television, radio and mail advertising for Republican campaigns. As the founder of Bearse & Company, which he started in 2007, Eric advises trade groups on the development of themes and messages that resonate in the public arena. He frequently pitches stories to press and serves as a spokesman and crisis communications advisor. He has also served as general consultant and strategist for more than a half dozen members of the Texas Legislature, developing campaign plans and overseeing the production of the paid media budget.
A prolific writer of advertising copy, Eric has drafted the copy for dozens of direct mail campaigns, radio and television ads, and web and social media efforts. He produced the successful Texas Proposition 6 television ads in 2013 to provide funding for water resources, which voters approved with nearly 75 percent. He also filmed ads for Texas One that aired in New York to recruit businesses to Texas.
Eric recently created Barrage, LLC – a voter canvassing company that deploys cutting-edge voter contact technology and data analytics with high-volume, multiple-pass canvassing programs to persuade, identify, and mobilize targeted voters to maximize our candidates’ vote share and achieve victory. Utilizing precinct-level electoral information and voter-level demographic data, Barrage identifies a universe of target voters, and then designs an efficient and effective strategy to reach them.
Eric attended Texas A&M University, graduating in four years with a degree in political science in 1993. He was a member of the Corps of Cadets, and his outfit’s chaplain. Eric and his wife Jene have two children – Charlotte (13) and Andrew (11). They live in Northwest Austin. Eric is a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has been a resident of Austin, Texas for the last 20 years.