Our story.
Lucinda and James met in 2019, in the early days of Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s campaign for president. James was helping the team hire senior staff and get the first stage of the campaign set up, and he interviewed Lucinda, who became the campaign’s National Political Director.
We learned that we were a good team, with shared values and principles, and a shared vision for how we do our work. A vision centered in high standards for ourselves and the folks we work with, and work centered in people and the idea of supporting leaders and organizations and helping them develop as the work gets done.
As that campaign ended the pandemic began. But we kept our discussions going, and kept observing that there was a need for folks who could add capacity and help campaigns, leaders, and organizations level-up without resorting to one-size-fits-all approaches.
So we started M State Partners. Because we love working together and believe the work we do with clients matters, needs to get done right, needs to meet the moment, and needs to build power and capacity in the people and organizations we have the honor of partnering with.
In 2022, Lucinda was a Senior Advisor on Wes Moore’s gubernatorial campaign in Maryland. After a decisive victory, Gov. Moore asked Lucinda to serve as deputy chief of staff in his administration. Lucinda is on an indefinite leave from M State Partners while serving in that capacity.
Who we are.
James Haggar
James is an organizer, a fairly doting father of two rambunctious kiddos, a partner to a spouse who is smarter than him, and a long-time campaign, labor, and progressive operative. He lives in Minnesota, where he started his career. He now consults for a variety of 501(c)3 and 501(c)4, labor, and political clients. James started his career as a canvasser for Sen. Paul Wellstone, and has played leadership roles in numerous statewide campaigns. He spent six years leading the political program at Education Minnesota (Minnesota’s NEA and AFT affiliate), and has considerable experience with coalition development and management, plan writing and facilitation, hiring and coaching, and supporting BIPOC-led and other community organizations in building power. Among his other clients, James currently helps lead the work of Our Future Starts at Home, a campaign to create dedicated funding for housing in Minnesota. When not working, James struggles at fantasy football, walks a lot, and buys books to add to his impressive books that he intends to read one day.