Susan McCue is President of Message-Global, LLC, a strategic communications and public affairs firm she founded in January 2008 to advance progressive campaigns, activism and issue advocacy in the U.S. and globally.

Ms. McCue served as the Chief of Staff for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) from 1998–2006 where she built and managed his leadership, policy and political operations. In 2004, The Almanac of the Unelected said Ms. McCue “can be found at the center of nearly every major debate and agreement in the Senate.” She also oversaw Reid’s leadership and Nevada races. When he was elected Democratic Leader in 2004, she created a cutting-edge communications operation that successfully brought together House and Senate caucuses along with interest groups across the country. She was a key strategist in the historic 2006 mid-term elections for Democrats and has helped shape many winning campaigns for progressives.

Following the 2006 Congressional victories, Ms. McCue departed Capitol Hill to become the first President and CEO of ONE, a high-energy grassroots and advocacy campaign to make global poverty history. Ms. McCue elevated ONE into a national force and laid the groundwork for a powerful, non-partisan movement that uses state-of-the art technology. ONE brings hundreds of non-profits and millions of Americans of all walks together; it has candidates, electeds, faith leaders, celebrities, college campuses and the country working as agents of change to end extreme poverty.

After a year at the helm of ONE, Ms. McCue opened Message Inc. with ONE as a main client and she rejoined Majority Leader Reid as a media and political strategist. For ONE, she continues to guide high-visibility projects that are spurring awareness and mobilization like never before.

In August 2007, GQ Magazine named Ms. McCue one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington and in 2006 Washingtonian Magazine named Ms. McCue as one of the 100 most powerful women in Washington. National Journal said “she has cemented her reputation as a savvy insider.”

Before taking her top Senate post eight years ago, Ms. McCue was a Communications Director for Reid and was the Press Secretary for Senator Tom Harkin’s successful 1996 campaign in Iowa. She worked at an advertising firm and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo. She also worked on media for Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential.

Prior to her political career, Ms. McCue worked as a News Assistant at the Associated Press and for reporters at National Journal and The New York Times. She also is the creator of the reality TV show Staffers, which aired on the Discovery-Times Channel in 2004. The Los Angeles Times called Staffers “hip political fare.”

A New Jersey native, Ms. McCue is a graduate of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, with degrees in economics and journalism.