lobbying k-street bipartisan tech defense pharma agriculture finance
related: Google - Alphabet · Palantir Technologies · Boeing · General Dynamics · RTX Corp · AbbVie · Johnson & Johnson · Apollo Global Management · PhRMA
Who They Are
Cornerstone Government Affairs was founded in the summer of 2002 as a bipartisan public affairs firm in downtown Washington, D.C. The firm started with 10 professionals and 11 clients, originally focused on budget and appropriations work for nonprofit organizations. By 2025 it had grown to over 180 professionals across 16 offices in 14+ states, with 386 federal lobbying clients billing a total of $55.65 million — ranking it among the five largest lobbying firms in the country by revenue.
The firm is employee-owned, with no outside private equity or institutional investors. President Campbell Kaufman has been with the firm since its founding in 2002. In 2024, Bloomberg Government named Cornerstone a top-performing lobbying firm nationally.
The firm’s growth trajectory — $10M (2004) → $20M (2008) → $30M (2015) → $48M (2024) → $55.7M (2025) — tracks the expansion of the federal lobbying industry overall as corporate America shifted toward institutionalized access-buying rather than episodic issue campaigns.
Money
In 2025, Cornerstone billed 386 clients a combined $55.65 million — an average of $144,000 per client. But the top clients tell the real story: Alphabet/Google alone paid $840K, the defense bloc (Boeing, General Dynamics, RTX, Anduril) paid millions combined, and pharma clients (AbbVie, J&J, AdvaMed) collectively paid over $600K. The 10% of clients that drive 60% of revenue are almost entirely drawn from the commanding sectors of the U.S. economy: tech, defense, pharma, and finance.
Client List
The client base spans virtually every major industry sector with significant legislative exposure, organized here by sector for 2025 billing.
Tech & AI
| Client | 2025 Billing | Key Issues |
|---|---|---|
| Alphabet Inc (Google) | $840,000 | Antitrust, AI copyright, TAKE IT DOWN Act, child safety |
| Adobe Inc | $220,000 | AI copyright, digital content regulation |
| Advanced Micro Devices | $130,000 | Semiconductor supply chain, CHIPS Act implementation |
| Scale AI | listed | AI procurement, defense AI contracts |
| Palantir Technologies | listed | Defense AI, intelligence contracts |
| Snowflake Inc | listed | Cloud data, federal contracts |
Defense & Aerospace
| Client | 2025 Billing | Key Issues |
|---|---|---|
| Boeing Co | listed | NDAA authorizations, FAA oversight, defense contracts |
| General Dynamics | listed | NDAA, defense industrial base, weapons systems |
| RTX Corp | listed | Missile systems, NDAA, defense appropriations |
| Anduril Industries | listed | Defense procurement, autonomous weapons, NDAA |
| United Launch Alliance | listed | Space launch contracts, NDAA |
| Acorn Growth (Berry Aviation) | $160,000 | Defense aerospace |
Pharma & Healthcare
| Client | 2025 Billing | Key Issues |
|---|---|---|
| AbbVie Inc | $240,000 | IRA drug price negotiation, Medicaid, Medicare |
| AdvaMed | $200,000 | Medical device regulation |
| American Hospital Assn | $200,000 | Hospital reimbursement, Medicaid |
| Johnson & Johnson | listed | Pharma pricing, product liability |
| American Cancer Society | $200,000 | Research funding, coverage mandates |
| Catholic Health Assn of the US | listed | Hospital policy |
Agriculture
| Client | 2025 Billing | Key Issues |
|---|---|---|
| American Forest Foundation | $240,000 | Forest management, conservation policy |
| American AgCredit | $160,000 | Agricultural finance, Farm Credit System |
| CoBank | listed | Agricultural lending, Farm Bill |
| Elanco Animal Health | listed | Animal health regulation, Farm Bill |
| Florida Sugar Cane League | listed | Sugar price supports, Farm Bill |
| US Rice Producers Assn | listed | Rice program subsidies, Farm Bill |
Finance
| Client | 2025 Billing | Key Issues |
|---|---|---|
| Advent International (Ultra Electronics) | $240,000 | Defense acquisitions, aerospace |
| Apollo Global Management (Arconic) | listed | Defense manufacturing, tax treatment |
| Willis Towers Watson | listed | Insurance regulation |
| AARP | $200,000 | Medicare, Social Security, drug pricing |
The Revolving Door
Cornerstone’s 43% revolving door rate (43 of 100 lobbyists in 2025 are former government employees) understates the firm’s real access architecture. The key hires cluster around party leadership and key committee staff — not just junior staffers.
Tier 1 — Party Infrastructure Captures (2023-2024):
Hyma Moore (hired Nov. 2023) — Chief of Staff to the Democratic National Committee under Chairman Jamie Harrison. Moore brings a decade of public policy, government, and strategic communications experience, along with her entire DNC network. Cornerstone President Campbell Kaufman described the Reed-Moore combination as giving the firm “both the former RNC Chief of Staff and former DNC Chief of Staff” on staff simultaneously — the explicit value proposition being party-agnostic legislative access.
Mike Reed (hired Feb. 2024) — Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee under Ronna McDaniel. As RNC CoS, Reed oversaw digital, data, fundraising, political, legal, and communications departments for an organization with 300+ headquarters staff and 1,000+ field employees. He was recruited by Cornerstone before leaving the RNC, staying through the winter meeting transition.
Tier 2 — Treasury & Tax Capture (2024):
Ron Storhaug (hired Dec. 2024) — Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax and Budget at the Treasury Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs; previously Senior Economic Policy Adviser to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). Storhaug was recruited specifically ahead of the 2025 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expiration fight — a $4+ trillion legislative battleground affecting every major corporate client at Cornerstone.
Tier 3 — Agency & Committee Staff:
Lauren Tomlinson (hired Aug. 2024) — Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Homeland Security. Now leads Cornerstone’s national security/public affairs practice. Has direct relationships with DHS and DoD communications networks — relevant for Cornerstone’s defense and intelligence contractor clients.
Michael Falencki (hired Jan. 2024) — Deputy Staff Director, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Directly positions Cornerstone to serve clients with transportation infrastructure exposure: aviation, rail, port, highway, and energy pipeline sectors.
Charles Carithers — Former professional staff, House Committee on Homeland Security. Now lobbies for Alphabet, Boeing, Palantir, Scale AI, Snowflake — the defense-AI intersection where Homeland Security committee equities are highest.
Heather Molino — Former minority staff director, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Now in Cornerstone’s homeland security practice, providing intelligence community access for defense and surveillance technology clients.
Will Smith — Former staff director, House Committee on Appropriations. All-committee appropriations access for Cornerstone’s hundreds of clients seeking federal funding.
Connie LaRossa — Former DHS and DoD official. Leads Cornerstone’s Homeland Security Practice Group alongside Carithers and Molino.
Tier 4 — Appropriations Power Play (March 2026):
Robin Juliano (began March 16, 2026) — Returned to Cornerstone as Principal after serving as Policy Director for House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), where she led a team of policy advisors and advised the Whip and the full Democratic caucus on all legislation moving through the House floor. Prior to the Whip’s office, Juliano previously served at Cornerstone and at the House Appropriations Committee as Staff Director — making this a revolving door return. Her dual experience running the House Appropriations Committee staff and the Whip’s policy operation gives Cornerstone direct access to both the spending pipeline and Democratic House leadership’s floor strategy.
Morgan Ulmer (set to begin April 9, 2026) — Joining Cornerstone as Principal. Previously served as Staff Director for the Senate Appropriations Committee — the single most powerful staff position in the Senate’s spending apparatus. The Senate Appropriations Committee controls the allocation of roughly $1.7 trillion in annual discretionary spending. Cornerstone’s hire of the person who ran that operation gives the firm’s 386 clients a direct line into how federal money gets distributed. Together, the Juliano-Ulmer hire gives Cornerstone both the House and Senate Appropriations Staff Directors — a complete bicameral appropriations capture.
Money
The Juliano-Ulmer dual hire in March 2026 is Cornerstone’s most aggressive appropriations play to date. Robin Juliano — former House Appropriations Staff Director and then Policy Director for the Democratic Whip — paired with Morgan Ulmer, the Senate Appropriations Committee Staff Director. These are the two people who ran the spending machinery of both chambers. For Cornerstone’s 386 clients — Boeing, RTX, Google, AbbVie, the entire agriculture bloc — having the former staff directors from both Appropriations committees on the payroll simultaneously is the closest thing to owning the federal budget process that K Street can offer.
The Reverse Revolving Door — John Keast:
John Keast joined Cornerstone in 2006 after 11 years as Sen. Roger Wicker’s Chief of Staff. He worked as a partner at the firm for 12 years, during which period he lobbied Congress on behalf of Boeing and other clients. In December 2018, Keast left Cornerstone to become Senate Commerce Committee staff director for Sen. Wicker — bringing 12 years of K-Street relationships, client familiarity, and lobbying network with him back into a committee with direct oversight of aviation, telecommunications, science, transportation, and commerce.
Keast served as Senate Commerce staff director until 2025, then joined BGR Group as a Senior Advisor in February 2026. He spent 11 years helping build Wicker’s legislative relationships. Then 12 years at Cornerstone, lobbying those same relationships on behalf of corporate clients. Then back to run Wicker’s committee.
Contradiction
Cornerstone advertises its bipartisan model as a service — “strategic access regardless of political outcomes.” The revolving door hires confirm the product: what Cornerstone is selling is not expertise but relationships. When Cornerstone hired the RNC Chief of Staff and the DNC Chief of Staff within 90 days of each other, they weren’t building a policy shop. They were hedging their access infrastructure against electoral uncertainty. For their corporate clients, the question isn’t “which party wins” — it’s “who do we call on Monday?”
What They Deliver
The most analytically documented Cornerstone policy outcome is the Keast/Boeing/Commerce Committee case. Keast lobbied Congress on Boeing’s behalf from 2006-2018. In December 2018, he left Cornerstone to become Senate Commerce Committee staff director — the committee with direct jurisdiction over aviation safety. The 737 MAX groundings occurred in 2019. Boeing’s political and regulatory relationships — cultivated in part through Keast’s years at Cornerstone — were directly relevant to how Congress structured its oversight response.
For the broader client base, Cornerstone’s value is access infrastructure across every major committee:
- Defense clients (Boeing, General Dynamics, RTX, Anduril) → Armed Services, Defense Appropriations, HPSCI, Homeland Security
- Tech clients (Google, Palantir, Scale AI) → Judiciary (antitrust), Commerce (tech regulation), Intelligence (surveillance/AI contracts)
- Pharma clients (AbbVie, J&J, PhRMA) → Finance, HELP Committee, Energy & Commerce
- Agriculture clients (CoBank, Elanco, sugar, rice) → Senate/House Agriculture Committees, USDA appropriations
The Ron Storhaug hire (Dec. 2024, Treasury tax) is positioned as a direct play for the 2025 TCJA expiration — the largest tax policy fight of the decade, with corporate clients across every sector facing potential rate changes.
Lobbying-to-Policy Timeline
| Date | Recipient/Target | Amount | Policy Return | Time Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2018 | Sen. Wicker / Senate Commerce Committee | Boeing lobby billings (2006–2018) | John Keast — Cornerstone’s Boeing lobbyist — exits firm to become Senate Commerce Committee staff director; direct capture of aviation/telecom/commerce oversight | <30 days (left firm Nov, appointed Dec 2018) |
| Nov 2023 | Democratic Congressional leadership; Senate/House Dem caucuses | Hire investment | DNC Chief of Staff Hyma Moore joins; Cornerstone acquires Democratic leadership access network for all 386 clients | Immediate |
| Feb 2024 | Republican Congressional leadership; RNC/NRCC/NRSC network | Hire investment | RNC Chief of Staff Mike Reed joins; full bipartisan access lock-in — one firm serving both party infrastructure simultaneously | Immediate |
| Dec 2024 | Senate Finance Committee; House Ways & Means; Treasury OLA | Hire investment | Treasury Deputy Asst. Secretary Ron Storhaug joins; positioned for 2025 TCJA expiration fight serving every corporate tax client at the firm | <60 days before TCJA fight opens |
| 2025 | House/Senate Judiciary; FTC; DOJ Antitrust Division | $840K (Alphabet/Google) | Lobbied antitrust oversight, TAKE IT DOWN Act (AI-generated CSAM), AI copyright regulation; tech industry helped shape child safety bill liability provisions | Ongoing |
| 2024–2025 | Senate Finance; HELP Committee | $240K (AbbVie) | Pharma lobbying on IRA Medicare drug price negotiation; AbbVie’s immunology product line not included in Phase 1 negotiation list | 12–18 months |
| 2024–2025 | House/Senate Armed Services; Defense Appropriations; HAC-D | Boeing + RTX + Anduril + General Dynamics billings | NDAA FY2025/FY2026 defense authorizations; defense industrial base appropriations; autonomous weapons procurement rules | 12–18 months |
| 2025 | Senate/House Agriculture Committees; USDA | ~$400K combined (CoBank + Elanco + AgCredit + FL Sugar + US Rice) | Farm Bill 2024–2025 reauthorization; agricultural lending provisions; crop protection and commodity support programs | Ongoing |
Money
The timeline reveals a firm that doesn’t lobby for individual bills — it lobbies for structural access. The DNC CoS + RNC CoS hires guarantee that regardless of which party controls the next Congress, Cornerstone’s clients have a direct line. The Treasury hire positions the firm for a $4 trillion legislative fight. The Keast/Boeing/Commerce story shows the endpoint: former lobbyists running the committee that oversees their old clients.
The Bipartisan Model
Cornerstone’s bipartisan model is its core product differentiation — and its most analytically revealing feature.
In November 2023, the firm hired Hyma Moore, Chief of Staff to the DNC. In February 2024, it hired Mike Reed, Chief of Staff to the RNC. Campbell Kaufman explicitly described the resulting team as “a bipartisan strategic communications practice with both the former RNC Chief of Staff and former Democratic National Committee Chief of Staff.”
This is the “Bipartisan Access Machine” pattern: the firm ensures that regardless of which party holds the White House, Congress, or key committee chairs, its clients have direct relationship access to the relevant power center. The DNC CoS carries Democratic Senate caucus relationships and connections to the Biden/Harris executive branch orbit. The RNC CoS carries Republican House majority relationships and Trump MAGA network connections.
For corporate clients operating in federal regulatory environments — which means virtually every Cornerstone client — this insurance policy is invaluable. When control shifts (as it did in January 2025), clients don’t need to rebuild access from scratch. Their lobbyist already has the new majority’s chiefs of staff on speed dial.
Contradiction
The “bipartisan” branding creates the appearance of political neutrality. But Cornerstone is not neutral — it serves capital. The firm represents Boeing, RTX, AbbVie, Google, Apollo, and sugar cane producers simultaneously. None of those clients have contradictory interests in the firm’s bipartisan access. They all want the same thing: favorable regulatory treatment, budget appropriations, and protection from legislation that would constrain their markets. Bipartisan access doesn’t mean serving both voters — it means serving donor-class clients regardless of which party is temporarily managing state power.
Billing vs. Outcomes
Revenue trajectory: $48M (2024) → $55.7M (2025) — a 16% single-year increase, tracking the surge in lobbying activity around the Trump administration’s first 100 days and TCJA expiration.
Client ROI calculation:
- Alphabet paid $840K in 2025 lobbying fees. Google’s Alphabet generates $350B+ in annual revenue. $840K represents 0.00024% of revenue — essentially zero cost to potentially shape antitrust policy, AI legislation, and child safety bill liability provisions worth billions in regulatory exposure.
- AbbVie paid $240K for pharma lobbying. AbbVie’s Humira generated $20B+ globally before biosimilar competition. Even marginal protection from IRA drug negotiation lists justifies millions in lobbying spend.
- The agriculture bloc (CoBank, Elanco, sugar, rice) collectively paid ~$400K. The sugar program alone generates hundreds of millions in annual producer benefits through price supports.
The calculus is consistent across every major client: lobbying fees are not costs, they are investments with documented policy returns. Cornerstone’s value proposition is that those returns are accessible through both parties, in perpetuity.
Class Analysis
Cornerstone Government Affairs is not a political firm — it is a class-interest firm. Its clients span the commanding heights of the American economy: tech platforms, defense contractors, pharmaceutical manufacturers, agricultural finance, private equity. Their interests are not partisan; they are structural. They want favorable regulation, budget access, tax treatment, and protection from legislative threats — regardless of which party manages Congress in any given cycle.
The firm’s structural function is to solve the principal problem of corporate lobbying: access continuity across electoral volatility. Individual politicians come and go. Party control shifts. But Cornerstone’s network — built from the DNC Chief of Staff, the RNC Chief of Staff, a Treasury tax official, House committee deputies, and a rotating cast of former agency heads — provides a stable infrastructure through which donor-class clients access the state regardless of electoral outcomes.
The Keast story is the paradigm case. A lobbyist who spent 12 years lobbying Congress on Boeing’s behalf returned to run the committee that oversees Boeing. The relationship built at K Street became the leverage that shaped congressional oversight. This is not corruption in the conventional sense — it’s the system working exactly as designed.
Cornerstone is employee-owned, which creates long-term relationship stability: partners have incentives to maintain access networks across careers, not just for one client cycle. The 180+ professionals across 16 states represent a distributed access infrastructure that mirrors the geographic spread of federal spending — agriculture offices in Iowa and Mississippi, defense access in Houston and DC.
The analytical pattern this firm represents is Bipartisan Access Machine combined with Revolving Door Hub: the firm’s primary commodity is not legal expertise or political knowledge, but the personal relationships that former government officials carry with them when they exit public service. Lobbying, at Cornerstone’s scale, is the institutionalized sale of those relationships to the highest bidder.
Sources
- OpenSecrets: Cornerstone Government Affairs lobbying profile 2025 (Tier 1)
- OpenSecrets: Cornerstone Government Affairs lobbying profile 2024 (Tier 1)
- OpenSecrets: Cornerstone Government Affairs lobbyists 2025 — 100 total, 43 revolvers (43%) (Tier 1)
- OpenSecrets: Revolving Door employer search — Cornerstone Government Affairs (Tier 1)
- Cornerstone Government Affairs: Firm History — founded 2002, 180+ professionals, 16 offices (Tier 3)
- Cornerstone Government Affairs: People directory (Tier 3)
- Cornerstone Government Affairs Named Top Lobbying Firm by Bloomberg Government — 2024 (Tier 3)
- The Hill: Cornerstone snags DNC chief — Hyma Moore (Nov. 2023) (Tier 2)
- Cornerstone press release: DNC Chief of Staff Hyma Moore joins (Nov. 2023) (Tier 3)
- Cornerstone press release: RNC Chief of Staff Mike Reed joins (Feb. 2024) (Tier 3)
- The Hill: DHS alum Lauren Tomlinson joins Cornerstone (Aug. 2024) (Tier 2)
- The Hill: Treasury appointee Ron Storhaug joins Cornerstone (Dec. 2024) (Tier 2)
- Cornerstone press release: Former Treasury Tax Appointee Ron Storhaug joins (Dec. 2024) (Tier 3)
- Cornerstone press release: Michael Falencki, Former Deputy Staff Director House Transportation Committee, joins (Jan. 2024) (Tier 3)
- Sen. Wicker press release: Wicker Names Keast as Commerce Committee Staff Director (Dec. 2018) (Tier 1)
- Cornerstone Government Affairs: Expansion of Appropriations Practice with Robin Juliano and Morgan Ulmer — House Approps Staff Director + Senate Approps Staff Director, March 17 2026 (Tier 3)
- Cornerstone Government Affairs: House Appropriations Committee Staff Director Robin Juliano Joins Cornerstone — career background and prior Cornerstone tenure (Tier 3)
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