Leslie Sanchez - Political Work

Political Work

Sanchez's political work began in the 1990s. While a student at GWU, she volunteered in several campaigns, garnering significant grassroots experience. During this time, Sanchez went to work in the office of Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-TX, as a legislative assistant on appropriations. She also worked on border issues and immigration legislation. After college, Sanchez held a number of public relations and marketing positions in the Capitol and worked with the staff of House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

In 1999, Sanchez became a deputy press secretary for the Republican National Committee were she developed communication strategies for the Hispanic market and served as the Committee's chief spokesperson to the Hispanic community. The results were tangible: "Until Leslie Sanchez, the Republican Party wasn't talking to Univision," according to one colleague. The following year, she was tapped by the 2000 Bush presidential campaign to work on Hispanic outreach. Together with V. Lance Tarrance, Jr., a prominent Republican pollster, Sanchez was a principal architect for two, "watershed Hispanic surveys," recognized at the time as the most thorough, all-encompassing political and cultural survey taken of Hispanic voters by any political party.

Additionally, Sanchez helped to create a multi-million dollar RNC marketing campaign aimed toward the Hispanic market in key states during the 2000 election cycle, a program widely credited as contributing to Bush receiving 37 percent of the Hispanic vote, the most by any Republican presidential candidate to that time. In 2001, outgoing RNC chairman Jim Nicholson praised Sanchez, at the time the Committee's Hispanic-voter liaison director, for her key role in that effort.

On May 29, 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Sanchez executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Created in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush, the program's mission is to provide advice and guidance to the Secretary of Education on educational issues related to Hispanics and means to address academic excellence and opportunities to the Hispanic community. In her capacity as director, Sanchez "monitored and evaluated Hispanic participation in education programs in 29 federal departments and agencies." Moreover, she created for her office a grassroots alliance of 20,000 students, parents, and educators nationwide, and assembled a strategic coalition of 30 Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, and government agencies.

Also in 2001, Sanchez was named one of the "100 Most Influential Hispanics" by Hispanic Business and was selected for the 4th Annual Young Hispanic Leaders Program where she earned a diploma at the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo in Santander, Spain. Around this time, she entered the MBA program at Johns Hopkins University's School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (now extant).

On June 25, 2003, Sanchez resigned her White House Initiative position to form her own consulting firm, Impacto Group, LLC, the "first Republican political strategy and research group aimed solely at the U.S. Hispanic marketplace." Pollster Tarrance joined her as head of research and development for Impacto Strategies, a division of the Group, and chairman of its board of advisors. Impacto also deals with social and economic issues related to women.