Heather Buen, Communications Strategist
Education, Work, and Training
Multi-faceted and experienced Senior Data Analyst with extensive achievements in the Utilities and Telecommunications Industry in sales operations, marketing, project management, and active collections. Has a passion for social impact communications working with political campaigns, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, news organizations, media companies and lifestyle brands.
Campaign Manager - Derrik Gay for Congress
Responsible for hiring staff and canvassers for the field canvassing program which includes: time tracking, managing payroll, onboarding, training and development
Develops social media content for voter engagement
Plans events and manages the campaign calendar
Developed the budget for the Runoff canvassing campaign thereby increasing voter outreach efforts by 200% within the first 30 days of joining the campaign
Campaign Strategy - Tara Wilson for Fort Worth City Council
Currently running the voter target strategy for the 2022 Special Election for Fort Worth City Council
Ran communications and strategy for a first-time candidate in a city council campaign against an incumbent in a district that includes 60K registered voters among a field of 5 candidates
Helped raise $15,000 in campaign contributions via email and digital marketing in 2021; also helped to raise close to $22,000 for the current 2022 special election
Managed VAN and helped to create and run phonebank programs and field activities
Candidate came in second in 2021 in the field of 5 against an incumbent and incumbent’s win percentage dropped by over 20 points from 74% in 2019 to 51.4% in 2021.
Social Media Marketing Manager - Andrew Sommerman for Dallas County Commissioner
Develops social media content for voter engagement and growing the follower base
Writes email content
Films and edits video content for the candidate to post to social media
Made it through the Democratic Primary and working toward the Primary Runoff in May 2022
Campaign Strategist - Jeff Williams for Collin County Commissioner
Utilized organizational skills to manage multiple projects under deadlines and respond quickly to change.
Served as key resource on complex and critical issues.
Mapped and pulled data to produce campaign performance reports.
Organized Turf Data for canvassing in NGP VAN as well as political signs, mailers, and SMS Text Messaging
Campaign Manager - Elizabeth Ginsberg for State Representative
Part of the winning campaign team that helped Elizabeth win the Democratic primary with 80% of the vote
Managed the social media content creation, develop, and maintenance on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram growing followers and engagement and providing reporting and data analytics for targeting purposes
Managed the development and hiring of staff, organizing vendor relationships and coordinating volunteer programs
Managed day to day field and canvassing program by recruiting volunteers and coordinating block walks
Engaged community and organizational leaders and elected officials to acquaint them with the candidate
Worked with the media in earned media, PR and setting up interviews with the Associated Press
Monthly campaign management that includes calendar, appointment setting, event planning, communications, relationship building, training and operations, and voter outreach events
Experienced with NGPVAN, VoteBuilder, Phoneburner, Hustle and Peerly SMS platforms
Managed digital fundraising emails and content strategy with weekly email content development including analytics, list cleaning and reporting
Familiar with Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Action Network, NGPVAN and Squarespace email platforms
Contributed to candidate fundraising efforts raising $90,000 in just three months of the campaign
Provided voter target and demographic data analytics
Marketing Manager for Bhojani for Texas Campaign
Part of the campaign staff the helped the candidate win the Democratic nomination in the March 1 Democratic Primary in the newly drawn House District 92
Managed the development and hiring of staff, managing vendor relationships and coordinating volunteer programs
Oversaw day to day outreach activities of targeted voters within the Texas Senate District
Engaged community, organizational leaders, and elected officials to acquaint them with the candidate and garner over 60 endorsements
Formulated strategic plans for candidate outreach
Worked with the media in earned media, PR and setting up interviews with Texas Tribune, Dallas Morning News, and Fort Worth Star Telegram
Researched district redistricting efforts and wrote testimony for hearings on the State Senate floor
Wrote policy and performed policy and platform analysis for message testing
Monthly campaign management that includes calendar, appointment setting, event planning, communications, relationship building, training and operations, and voter outreach events
Experienced with NGPVAN, VoteBuilder,Phoneburner, Hustle and SMS platforms, and Outreach Circle relational platform
Managed digital fundraising emails and content strategy with weekly email content development including analytics, list cleaning and reporting
Familiar with Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Action Network, NGPVAN and Squarespace email platforms
Contributed to candidate fundraising efforts by planning fundraising events and developing fundraising emails for both campaigns when the candidate started out running in Senate District 9 and then switched over to House District 92 in September resulting in close to $300,000 in donations
Provided voter target and demographic data analytics
Boosted brand awareness and generated leads while managing internal and external marketing campaigns and programs.
Political Outreach Director - Deborah Peoples for Mayor Campaign
Successfully managed phone banking, text banking and digital outreach resulting in the candidate winning the May 1 election with 34% of the vote in a field of ten candidates and making it to the runoff election to be held on June 5th
Candidate improved performance with a 37% increase in votes by securing 22,352 votes versus 16,218 votes in 2019 for the same mayoral race against an incumbent
Executed full time field canvassing plan and managed canvassers in the June runoff city election which included door knocking, phone banking and text messaging efforts successfully knocking on 16,000 doors in the city of Fort Worth along with 45,000 phone calls and 200,000 text messaging
Supported fundraising efforts by raising over $800,000 in donations from close to 1500 individual donors
Increased the African American vote from single digits to 21% voter participation in municipal elections.
Communications Chair - Tarrant County Democratic Party
Managed all digital communications for the Tarrant County Democratic Party helping to maintain Tarrant County as a blue county in the lead race on the ballot
Tarrant County was one of the last red urban counties in Texas and the county flipped for Biden in 2020, the first time a Democrat won the county at the presidential level since 1964
Raised $288,678 in digital fundraising for the Tarrant County Democratic Party with a consistent email and digital fundraising programs
Championed the Vote by Mail program and outreach by securing a $42,000 investment in mailing vote by mail applications in Tarrant County along with a VBM phonebank chase and COVID Wellness Check campaigns resulting in Democrats having a larger percentage of VBM voters versus Republicans with a 138% increase since 2016
Managed the voter registration door hanger program with a $28,000 investment by the State Party that included 50,000 voter registration door hangers and an additional 25,000 door hangers from Tarrant Together to cover Tarrant County resulting in 2.78% return rate (highest in the State of Texas) at a cost of $5 per returned form
Managed social media marketing of events with graphic development and targeting
Also helped to grow the social media following of the campaign Facebook page with an increase in reach by 18.1K%
Designed, developed, and managed distribution of political signs across 355 square miles
Administrator for the NGP VAN Votebuilder to develop field planning and activities up to an including reporting, phonebank creation, turf cutting and campaign management
Championed engagement and relationships to help grow Youth, Black, Latino, and AAPI Voters
During COVID, managed virtual townhall events for Democratic candidates running in Tarrant County via Zoom and streaming to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.