Biography

A filmmaker by education and operative by vocation, Jeremy D. Thompson is a fifteen year political veteran, having volunteered for and staffed Democratic and progressive campaigns since well before he could vote.

In 2006, he founded Reelpolitik Campaign Media and recently served as Senior New Media Advisor to the Obama campaign in California.

Born in Western Nebraska and raised in Denver, studies brought Jeremy to California, where he attended the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Majoring in film, Jeremy developed production skills that would later translate into a series of successful short documentary productions distributed online by the Westly for Governor Campaign. Viewed thousands of times, these pieces were examined in major news publications and eventually led to the founding of Reelpolitik.

With the explosion of social video websites onto the political scene, Reelpolitik was born to bring fast, fresh, energetic productions to candidate and issue campaigns; working quickly and light, shooting and editing on the move, and maintaining a release schedule that drives – rather than survives – perpetually moving news cycles and the Netroots.

In its first two election cycles, Reelpolitik created online, television and installation content for campaigns up and down the ballot; including the 2006 California gubernatorial contest, congressional fights in a half-dozen states, legislative and local races, the California Democratic Party, two national 527 PACs, MoveOn.org, Antonio Villaraigosa’s Partnership for Better Schools, and the Yes on Proposition 87 campaign.
Reelpolitik’s body of work features many of the leading forces in Democratic politics and celebrity advocacy; including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, John Edwards, Barbara Boxer, Mark Warner, Maria Shriver, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Before his transition into New Media, Jeremy served as a staffer and consultant across campaign disciplines; working in Field, Operations, Compliance and Communications.  Beginning at age 14 in Colorado, Jeremy volunteered on Senator Bob Kerrey’s 1992 Presidential campaign.  He went on to the Field staff of Gene Nicholl for U.S. Senate, and later the Compliance Department of the Democratic National Committee.

Jeremy served as Director of Operations and Compliance with the Governor Gray Davis Committee and Californians AGAINST the Costly Recall of the Governor. Others who have tapped his skills include Grassroots Democrats, John Chiang for Controller, Rocky Delgadillo for Attorney General, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the Alliance for a Better California, Van Tamom for Assembly, and Tim Kaine for Governor.

As a youth in Colorado, Jeremy volunteered for the presidential campaign of former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey and the Senate race of Ben Nighthorse Campbell (then a Democrat); working at the grassroots level and developing a passion for and commitment to the political process. He continued to volunteer and advocate throughout his school years, and was an avid activist and State Convention Delegate for populist candidate Gene Nicholl in the 1996 Colorado Senatorial primary, the first election in which he was eligible to vote.

Beyond campaigns, Jeremy worked at two leading firms specializing in election law and campaign finance reporting & compliance; Smith Kaufman LLP and Political C.F.O.s.  In 2005, he served as Executive Director of Stop Offshore Oil Drilling, a successful environmental campaign to prevent the resumption of drilling from Venoco’s Platform Grace off the coast of Oxnard, California.
Jeremy resides in Southern California, with his wife and their three children. His non-political interests include a lifelong love of music (a multi-instrumentalist) and the more recent indulgence of playing ice hockey.