Rachel Bitecofer

Rachel Bitecofer is a political scientist and election forecaster turned political strategist. Bitecofer’s interviews and analysis have been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Politico, The New Republic, Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN, MSNBC and many other prominent news sources.

Bitecofer was recognized for her novel theory that negative partisanship predicted a large “Blue Wave” in the 2018 midterm elections much earlier than other forecasters. She then used her methodology to anticipate that Democrats would recapture the presidency in 2020, more than a year out from the election.

In her latest book Hit Em' Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy By Beating Republicans at Their Own Game Bitecofer argues that to beat Republicans, Democrats must utilize an electioneering strategy using negative partisanship that relies on one message that both drives strong turnout for the party's coalition which includes both Democrats and "left-leaning" independents, while simultaneously pushing swing voters away from voting for Republicans.

Known as The Election Whisperer, Rachel “The Doc” Bitecofer offers hold-no-punches political commentary and has become a sought-after political strategist. She earned a Ph.D. in political science and international affairs from the University of Georgia and served as a Lecturer in Political Science and the Assistant Director of the Wason Center at Christopher Newport University where she conducted polling and election analysis.

Bitecofer hosts the political podcast The Cycle, on Substack. She co-founded StrikePac, a SuperPAC she describes as “a brand offensive against the whole of the Republican Party,” before leaving to work directly with the Democratic candidates and organizations as a strategic consultant. Previously, Bitecofer also served as a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, a centrist think-tank in Washington, D.C., a senior advisor to The Lincoln Project.

Bitecofer lives in Oregon and tweets prolifically to more than 155,000 followers from @rachelbitecofer.