We’ve worked for national campaign committees in some of the most competitive districts in the nation, created national environmental and criminal justice trends with our statewide ballot measure work, helped elect state legislators in California, Washington, and Colorado, and won tough candidate campaigns that the press has called "stunning," "surprise," "upset" victories.
Our campaigns are guided by a comprehensive strategic framework with a clear vision at its center, and the strategy informs every decision and action.
While we seek to be creative in everything we do, it’s never at the expense of strategy.
Leo Wallach, Founder and Principal at RALLY Campaigns, is a strategist and media consultant known for winning complex campaigns and creating compelling paid media.
Leo excels at weaving together opinion research, messaging, positioning, and different communications channels to create cohesive and powerful campaigns.
He has played a senior role on and won more than fifteen statewide ballot measure campaigns across the country, including campaigns in Ohio, Arkansas, Michigan, and Nevada.
In his home state of California, he has worked on a number of statewide campaigns. Most recently, Leo led one of the most successful independent expenditure efforts in the state, winning twelve out of twelve hard-fought state senate and assembly campaigns in 2016 and 2018. Leo’s TV advertising work has also played a critical role in some of California’s leading races and in issue advocacy campaigns across the country.
Leo also has a long record of winning statewide environmental ballot measures. In 2018, Leo led the successful campaign to pass California’s Proposition 68, a statewide water and environmental bond that broke new ground with innovative communications and won with an explicitly climate change-focused message.
In 2016, Leo served as the lead strategist for the Yes on Proposition 67 campaign, which protected California’s first-in-the nation ban on single-use plastic shopping bags. And he played a leading role on No on 23, the nationally watched campaign that protected California’s climate and clean energy rules in 2010.
Leo also served as a senior strategist on Props 39 and 35 in 2014.
Prior to founding RALLY Campaigns, Leo was Vice President at Winner & Mandabach Campaigns, a Los Angeles-based national political consulting firm, and also ran his own strategic consulting firm, Wallach Public Affairs.
Leo was previously named a Rising Star by Campaigns & Elections magazine.
Leo grew up in Oakland, California and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Noah Finneburgh, Director at RALLY Campaigns, has overseen paid media and communications strategies for campaigns in California, Washington, and Colorado.
Noah specializes in paid media, targeting, and messaging. Most recently, Noah composed digital, video, radio, mail, and print advertising for clients including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Equality California, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, and independent expenditures which worked to elect President Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff.
In his home region of Northern California, Noah is known as a hands-on general consultant who wins tough campaigns against the odds. Recently, he led campaigns that elected Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin and Richmond Mayor Tom Butt.
Noah has been a political and communications consultant for 15 years. Prior to joining RALLY Campaigns, he served as the Vice President and Communications Director at a Bay Area political consulting firm. Before that, he worked as a fundraiser, field organizer, and social media strategist for campaigns across California.
Noah grew up in Oakland, California and graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Film and Digital Media and a Minor in Electronic Music. Outside the office, Noah enjoys music, reading political history, rooting for his Oakland A’s, and finding the next great sushi restaurant and coffee shop.
Derek Jansen is a Director at RALLY specializing in political strategy, coalition management, and paid media. He brings strategic discipline to message development and execution, and has extensive experience building high-impact ballot measure, candidate, and issue campaigns.
At RALLY, Derek worked on the award-winning Yes on Prop 68 campaign, a successful $4.1 billion bond measure for water, parks, and natural resources in California. He also helped launch and drive earned media for Resilient by Design, a community-driven design challenge to strengthen the Bay Area’s resilience to sea level rise and earthquakes. Derek has worked with clients across a broad set of issue areas, including advocating for local public power in San Francisco, increasing education funding in Washington state, and ending the death penalty in California.
Prior to joining RALLY, Derek worked on high-profile issue and political campaigns in San Francisco, including Ed Lee for Mayor 2011, the approval of a new $2 billion seismically-safe hospital, and a multimillion-dollar citywide ballot measure. He also worked for NextGen Climate to block the Keystone XL pipeline and on the organization’s legislative and ballot priorities in California. Just before joining RALLY in 2015, Derek helped the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids pass ordinances eliminating chewing tobacco at baseball fields in San Francisco and Los Angeles, including at AT&T Park and Dodger Stadium.
Derek graduated from Kalamazoo College with a degree in political science, and has a Masters of Science in Teaching from Pace University that he earned while teaching elementary school with Teach For America in Brooklyn, New York. Derek grew up in Davis, California and lives with his wife Victoria in Sacramento.
Alexis Mahrus is the Design Director at RALLY, where she works closely with the firm’s account teams to create visually rich and inclusive communications experiences through the power of design. Based in the San Francisco office, Alexis leverages a wide range of disciplines, including brand development, visual design for web and print, illustration, and motion graphics. A member of RALLY since 2015, Alexis collaborates on projects spanning a variety of issue spaces.
Alexis created the brand system and design assets for Tipping Point Community’s All In campaign—a diverse coalition focused on solutions to end homelessness in San Francisco. As part of the campaign, she created a graphic explainer video that outlined a new approach for providing housing to those in need. The campaign earned broad support from elected leaders and thousands of residents.
Additionally, Alexis oversaw the creative on the Yes on 68 campaign, a statewide water and parks bond in California. She developed a fresh brand strategy that played out over a myriad of deliverables, including direct mail, an award-winning digital campaign, and video ads. Alexis’ work resonated with millions of voters and helped lift Prop 68 to victory on Election Day.
Prior to RALLY, Alexis produced visual solutions for a variety of clients, specializing in brand, editorial, illustration, and advertising. She cut her teeth in the political space at a local San Francisco political consulting firm, creating logos, collateral, and direct mail for dozens of campaigns.
A native of California’s Bay Area, Alexis and her family now reside in the Presidio of San Francisco, where she enjoys outdoor hikes, mountain bike riding, and exploring the many decadent bakeries of SF.
