Jason M. Childress is a public affairs director with Foley & Lardner LLP. He is a member of the Government & Public Policy Practice based in Madison, Wisconsin.

He is a seasoned government affairs professional who counsels corporations, non-profits and trade groups on all aspects of state and local government advocacy and procurement. Jason assists clients with the state legislative and budget process as well as engages with state agencies on regulatory and purchasing matters. He is also a registered lobbyist with the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County and Dane County, where he helps numerous clients engage with local leaders to achieve their goals.

As a member of the firm's State Attorneys General working group, Jason also helps clients to engage the Department of Justice to advocate for the interests of our clients.

Jason has worked on numerous environmental issues for clients related to petroleum pipelines and storage, air and water regulation, renewables and more.

Jason began his political career in 1994 and has since counseled numerous state and federal elected officials and candidates on a wide variety of political matters.

Jason joined Foley after six years as the executive director of the State Senate Democratic Committee. In this role, he served three Senate Democratic leaders as their chief political and campaign strategist and managed all media relations, research, message development and finance operations. Jason was the architect of the Democrats' successful bid to regain the majority in the State Senate in 2006. Prior to this, Jason served as a finance consultant to the Assembly Democratic leader and Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

He has conducted numerous local and national trainings on all areas of campaign planning and execution and is a recognized national leader in state legislative politics.

Jason also has extensive non-profit experience, having served as the assistant development director for United Way. There he worked with top leadership in every major area employer to secure funding for social service programs. As the regional development director for Special Olympics Wisconsin, Jason worked to secure corporate, individual and government support for the organization's programming. He also served on the board and as the government relations chair for the Association of Fundraising Professionals. In this role he helped advocate for federal tax code changes to encourage greater philanthropic giving.

Jason was awarded the "Marc Marotta Award" for his Wisconsin state legislative lobbying efforts on behalf of National Heritage Academies (NHA). He led an effort to successfully expand the number of charter school authorizers in Wisconsin, providing opportunities for NHA to expand in their mission to serve children with high quality public charter schools.

Jason is the past president of the Association of Wisconsin Lobbyists. He is also a past board member of Democrats for Education Reform.

Jason was a dean's list student and graduate of the University of Wisconsin River Falls where he wrote for the Student Voice newspaper and chaired the College Democrats.