Joe Trippi

Joseph Paul Trippi (born June 10, 1956) is an American political strategist. A member of the Democratic Party, Trippi most notably served as campaign manager of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid, and has served as a political commentator for CNN since 2018. He has worked on a number of prominent gubernatorial and United States Senate campaigns, including the successful bids of Jerry Brown for Governor of California and Doug Jones for U.S. Senate in Alabama. Early life and education Trippi was born in Jamestown, New York and raised in Los Angeles, California. Trippi began his career in the mid-1970s working on several local elections in San Jose, California while he was attending San Jose State University, before leaving college a few credits shy of graduation to join the Ted Kennedy 1980 presidential campaign. During college he was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity. Career Trippi served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley's successful reelection bid in 1981 and his unsuccessful run in the 1982 California gubernatorial election. During Bradley's gubernatorial campaign, Trippi installed one of the first in-house computers for a political campaign, the DEC-PDP11. Trippi used it for fundraising and targeting.