Jim Blaine served as North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger’s first Chief of Staff, from 2011 to 2018.  Prior to joining Senator Berger’s legislative staff, Blaine was the director of the Republican State Senate Caucus political organization, where he led the historic 2010 campaign effort that put Republicans in control of the North Carolina Senate for the first time in 140 years.

Much of Blaine’s training for legislative and political work came through his first job out of college: teaching middle school students with behavioral and emotional disabilities.

After six years, Blaine left the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a diploma in hand and an agreement – which the University rescinded in 2018 when he was appointed to the UNC Board of Visitors – that he not return.

Today, Blaine lives in Raleigh with his wife and four daughters.

Differentiators: Legislative and policy consulting. Creative messaging. Political strategy.

Ray Martin is a newspaper reporter turned communications adviser turned political operative.

Martin got his first writing gig at 16, covering high school sports for his hometown newspaper. In college, he wrote full time for the statewide newspaper of record and managed a team of opinion columnists for student media on Oklahoma’s campus. The News & Observer brought him to Raleigh in 2009, and he covered local government until Phil Berger hired him to be the State Senate’s press secretary. Martin managed the Senate Caucus political operation from 2012 to 2018, going undefeated in target races in three of the four election cycles.

Martin lives in North Raleigh with his wife, Rachel and their two kids.

Differentiators: Strategic communication. Project and campaign management. New media.

Zach Almond runs “Differentiators Local”, a new partnership exclusively for down-ballot races below the legislative level. Almond has worked in local politics since he was 14. He built an innovative voter contact program that helped over two dozen candidates in North and South Carolina win in 2020. In addition to his success in local campaigns, Zach has been a campaign manager for Congressman Dan Bishop, chairman of the North Carolina College Republicans, and at age 23 was elected to the Stanly County Commission. Zach lives in Albemarle, North Carolina with his wife, Katlyn.