CEO, WAB Strategic
Shannon Burns is a political consultant, Republican political strategist, grassroots leader, and national political operative with more than two decades of experience in campaign operations, party infrastructure, and conservative advocacy. His career brings together business leadership, national political campaigns, industry associations, and the development of organizations that influence public policy.
Burns is the CEO of WAB Strategic, a political consulting and strategic communications firm founded in 2021 that advises candidates, advocacy organizations, and coalitions on campaign strategy, grassroots mobilization, and communications.
His professional experience includes leading national organizations and providing strategic consultation and leadership to industry associations and national political groups. Drawing on relationships in Washington, D.C., and every state capital in the nation, Burns connects national strategy with state and local experience. His work combines organizational development, coalition building, political intelligence, and communications to help clients bring people together around shared objectives and translate those objectives into effective advocacy.
From 2005 through 2020, Burns was the CEO of Victory Solutions LLC, a national Republican voter contact and political technology firm that worked with Republican campaigns, state parties, and the Republican National Committee. Through this work he gained firsthand experience with the strengths and limitations of the national party’s campaign infrastructure.
Burns brings extensive national campaign and party experience. During the 2016 presidential election cycle, he served as a vendor to the Donald J. Trump for President campaign and a consultant on the campaign’s data team, contributing to voter targeting and campaign data operations during the historic election.
Over the course of his career, Burns has also served three presidential administrations as a Presidential and Vice Presidential Advance Lead and Advance Associate, coordinating political events and official visits across the country.
He also currently helps lead a national Trump-aligned 501(c)(4) organization advocating for President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA™) agenda, working to advance patient-focused healthcare reforms and build a national coalition around the initiative.
Burns currently serves as the Ohio Republican Party State Central Committeeman for the 24th State Senate District, representing Republican voters in Cuyahoga County. First elected in 2020 and re-elected in 2022, 2024, and 2026, he has worked to strengthen grassroots engagement, support Republican candidates, and expand party infrastructure in Northeast Ohio.
He is also the Chairman of Strongsville GOP, where he has led the organization to become the largest and most influential grassroots Republican organization in the State of Ohio. Under his leadership, Strongsville GOP has expanded membership, increased political engagement, and hosted numerous candidate forums and events featuring statewide and national Republican leaders.
Within the Ohio Republican Party, Burns is recognized as a leader of the growing conservative caucus on the State Central Committee. Since 2022, the caucus has expanded its vote strength each election cycle, successfully organizing grassroots-minded members and winning key internal battles against the party establishment to advance a stronger conservative direction for the party.
Through more than two decades working inside Republican campaigns, state parties, and the Republican National Committee, Burns believes the party must embrace a new era of innovation. The political left has built a sophisticated, interconnected ecosystem of technology platforms, data operations, advocacy organizations, and grassroots mobilization networks that operate year-round to influence elections and public policy. To compete and win long term, Burns believes Republicans must innovate the entire Republican ecosystem — from data infrastructure and voter contact technology to coalition building, grassroots engagement, and policy advocacy.
Modernizing the party’s operational model will be essential for Republicans to remain competitive in national elections through 2032 and beyond while staying grounded in the conservative principles that unite Republican voters.
Burns and his wife, Mary, live in Strongsville, Ohio, with their three children, Estella, Adalyn, and Monroe, and their Great Dane, Winnie.