Biography
A native Mainer, Ed handcrafts and executes winning communication strategies that integrate TV, radio, online and social media to engage and mobilize targeted audiences for clients – including federal, state and local politicians, business leaders, foundations, film makers, authors, and issue advocates in North America and Europe.
For the last 8 years, Ed has been behind some of the most innovative digital strategies that bridge online and offline campaigns to engage citizens and drive results. In 2010, he helped to pioneer the use of “big data” to micro-target voters on social media and other digital platforms, contributing to hard-won victories for Rep. Ron Kind in Wisconsin’s 3rd District and with Senator Michael Bennet election in Colorado.
In 2016, he founded Erikson Communication Group and kicked off the year with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and the Bernie Sanders for President campaign, to create and release a limited edition, off-brand ice cream, to promote Sanders campaign. What started with posts on Ben’s Twitter and brand new Facebook pages, generated over 1,000 national news stories in 48 hours culminating in Sen. Sanders eating the ice cream live on The View in less than two weeks, and was followed by a four-month tour with Ben & Jerry to 18 states with events topping 10,000 people.
In 2017, working with some of the top Constitutional lawyers in the country, Ed helped launched a national campaign that built a 1.14 million-person email list in four months without advertising, calling on Congress to begin an impeachment investigation of President Trump as a result of violations of the foreign and domestic emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Ed has a BA in Political Science from the University of Southern Maine, an MA in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. (ABD) from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Political Science.