June 26, 2023
Richard Cullen, PLUS Communications partner and head of PLUS’ Richmond office, sat down to discuss his background and expertise in the political arena, his role running PLUS’ Richmond office and why Virginia is a ‘bellwether’ for the rest of the country. Watch the interview and read the transcript below.
Full transcript:
All the experiences I’ve had in my career – working in journalism, working on Capitol Hill, working at a political committee, working on a political campaign, working at PLUS – there’s something that they all have in common. There’s a fast-paced intensity to it. You’re judged by whether you win or you lose.
You can’t go to your clients and say, ‘hey, this issue failed for us, but you know what, look at the spreadsheet of all the great Twitter followers we got.’ That’s just not going to cut it. You’re either successful or you’re not.
My name is Richard Cullen. I’m a partner at PLUS Communications. I opened up our office in Richmond, Virginia – my hometown.
There’s a saying, “as goes Virginia, so goes the nation.” Virginia has always been a bellwether for national political and policy trends. The reason for that is we have elections every single year. So, there’s a lot of things that happen in Virginia – whether it’s legislation, whether it’s policy, whether it’s a regulatory matter or political tactic or strategy – a lot of times you see [these trends] originate in Richmond and Virginia more broadly. And there are lessons learned for the national press or national policymakers.
Clients [get] the best of both worlds – professionals on the ground who have relationships and knowledge of the Richmond political ecosystem, but also have the backing of a major national public affairs firm.
We now have offices in Richmond and Austin and our headquarters in Arlington. We are full-service digital, video production, grassroots – anything you could ever want from a communications business, we offer it. We never say ‘we can’t do that’ – we just do it. A lot of times, businesses grow and maybe you lose that sort of ‘cutting edge’ and desire to win. That’s never been the case for our firm, and that’s never going to change.
"*" indicates required fields
