Jody Severson is an independent political, communication, and advertising consultant who lives in Rapid City, South Dakota. His political clients have included presidential candidates, U.S. senators (including former Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota), congresspeople, governors, and mayors. For the past 30 years, Severson has guided dozens of rural electric cooperatives facing competitive challenges, territorial threats, hostile takeovers, and other issues. Severson began working with cooperatives when he assisted Rural Electric of Brighton, Colorado when the union defeated an attempted hostile takeover by the Public Service Company of Colorado. Since then, he has worked with co-ops, public power districts, and telephone cooperatives nationwide. Severson has been a speaker at hundreds of Rural Electric conferences, discussing topics such as communication, crisis management, and governance. Previously, he was a Special Assistant to South Dakota Senator Jim Abourezk, working on housing, community development, and flood recovery. He was also Press Secretary and Director of Policy for South Dakota Governor Harvey Wollman. In the late 1960s, he was a Research Assistant at the Rural Housing Alliance, a nonprofit that fought for low-income housing in rural areas. RHA later evolved into Rural America Inc, which advocates for rural communities on a spectrum of issues. Severson has served on Rural America Inc’s Board of Directors. Although he stuffed envelopes for George McGovern as a grade-schooler, it would be more accurate to say that Severson’s first campaign was as South Dakota Press Secretary for Eugene McCarthy’s presidential bid in 1968.