Marvin Randolph is President of ONYX Communications – a full service political consulting firm, with decades of experience leading and winning national campaigns, designing high-level strategies, developing pin-point messaging, and creating compelling content on all platforms. Specializing in integrated field, phones, text and digital campaigns, ONYX is uniquely experienced at creating impactful conversations with voters, particularly members of the New American Majority/Rising American Electorate. ONYX designs custom communications solutions that put clients on the path to achieve their goals. With political roots that run deep and success in every corner of the country, our experiences allow us to offer clients a unique perspective on how best to design and execute winning campaign strategies.
 
In his donor advisor role, Marvin serves as Director of Community-Based Electoral Initiatives for the Sandler Phillips Center. He is also President and CEO of 501(c)(4) and(c)(3) sister organizations, Southern Elections Fund, founded by Julian Bond, and Southern Engagement Foundation (SEF). He leads the organization’s efforts, working with national and state partners to combat voter suppression, and accelerate the impact of the South’s rapidly changing demographics; fulfilling its mission of expanding the electorate, developing new leaders of color, and building long-term power and capacity around their issues in order to enhance political power and bring progressive change.

More recently, he was a donor advisor/strategist supporting Black voter turnout efforts in Alabama that resulted in the December 2017 upset victory of Doug Jones to the United States Senate. He also managed Independent Expenditures for Stacey Abrams and Ben Jealous’ successful primary bids for Governor (PowerPAC GA, MD Together We Rise). Marvin previously served as Senior Vice President for Campaigns at the NAACP.

In this role he provided strategic direction for efforts to advance the organizations seven issue priorities (education, health, climate justice, criminal justice, economic justice, civic engagement and voting rights) through a comprehensive organizational strategy that linked electoral organizing to issue work at both a national and local level. While there he envisioned and developed the NAACP’s historic 2012 non-partisan civic engagement plan, and served as the Association’s primary liaison to subsidiaries and partner organizations around its civic engagement work.

He provided direct supervision to field, civic engagement, training, organizing, membership, religious affairs and issue team staff; while also leading multi-departmental teams for rapid response campaigns – including the staff of field, programs, communication, new media and legal teams. He was also responsible for developing and overseeing protocols for the identification, vetting and resourcing of rapid response campaigns, and assisting the Chief Operating Officer/Chief of Staff in the day-to-day oversight of key campaigns, programs and organizational objectives.
 
In the 2012 Presidential cycle, Marvin led the NAACP’s This Is My Vote! Campaign, building the largest voter registration and mobilization campaign in Association's history; adding hundreds of thousands of voters to the rolls in 49 states. In 2012, that campaign registered 375,618 voters (3 times greater than in 2008), and mobilized 1.2 million; producing results that eclipsed the NAACP’s high watermark set back in 2008 by mobilizing more than twice as many voters. The NAACP ranked first, out of 69 national organizations, in the number of registrations generated directly by the field; and third in the total number of registration successfully placed on the rolls.

No stranger to work at the Association, Marvin served in 2000 as Voter Contact Director for the NAACP National Voter Fund (NAACP/NVF) – credited with what was then the largest African-American turnout in history. He designed voter contact strategy, and oversaw development of national voter registration, education, election protection, voter turnout and grant programs. During the 2012 election cycle, the Association once again shattered that ceiling; the census reporting that in 2012, Black turnout surpassed the turnout of White voters for the first time in history.
 
Working over four decades, on more than 120 campaigns in 31 states across the nation, Marvin wears many hats — trainer, coach, activist and advocate — to strengthen the capacity of civil rights and public advocacy organizations to advance social change. A veteran of political campaigns and a nationally recognized expert in civic engagement and voter contact strategy, Marvin brings a unique set of campaign skills.

As a senior campaign strategist, and having successfully directed issue campaigns across the country, he has earned a reputation for winning tough initiatives — electoral, referendum and issue. He has served in a variety of political, labor and lobbying roles, which account for his embodiment of a distinct combination of campaign management skills.

Marvin has served on the staff of the Democratic National Committee and Service Employees International Union (SEIU); directed primary operations in three states for Clinton/Gore; served as the Founding Executive Director of Virginia Citizen Action, and, in 1994, as National Executive Director of Project Vote. He has also served as Organizing Directorand Political Director for the Center for Community Change, and later as Deputy Executive Director of the Center’s 501(c)(4) Campaign for Community Change Action.
 
Marvin was a partner for five years with Urbanomics Consulting Group, a public relations and public affairs firm, overseeing Washington, DC operations of the company while directing legislative, political and grassroots strategies for client engagements – including over 35 national and local organizations.

He also served as Senior Account Executive for a direct-mail firm, managing accounts for clients ranging from Presidential to Municipal. His reputation for turning around ailing campaigns and rapid response has won him numerous accolades, including recognition by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney for his efforts in successfully directing the 1997 Los Angeles field operation of the landmark campaign to defeat Proposition 226, the anti-labor initiative in California. He was also recipient of the Midwest Academy 2018 Progressive Leadership Award.