Team
A senior team on every account. The people who write your plan are the people who run it.
Founded in 2018, Upper Left Strategies is a Seattle strategy firm for Democratic campaigns, independent expenditures and public affairs clients, in elections and in the rooms where policy gets made.
Michael Charles
Michael is one of Washington's leading Democratic strategists. He has guided winning campaigns from city hall to statewide office and advised clients in Olympia and Washington, D.C.
He started on the Obama campaign in Iowa in 2008 and moved to Seattle the next year. Since then he has run and advised races from city councils to statewide and congressional campaigns, built independent expenditures in the legislative districts that decide majorities, and represented tribes, companies, advocacy organizations and public agencies before local, state and federal government.
Clients bring him in for the plan, the message and the hard calls, and he stays on the work until the last ballot is counted or the bill is signed.
Michael Fertakis
Michael (pronounced Fur-talk-iss) leads the firm's targeting and production work, turning voter files and polling into programs a campaign can run.
A Pacific Northwest native and Western Washington University graduate, he brings nearly 15 years of campaign and advocacy experience and has been with Upper Left since 2018. His clients range from local candidates to national organizations and federal campaigns, and his work runs from field and mail to television and digital, each piece aimed at the voters who decide the race.
Outside the office he hikes, snowboards, and now and then takes first place with his trivia team.
How we work
No handoff to a junior team after the pitch. You work with the partners on every call.
Budget, calendar, targets and the win number, agreed before the first dollar moves.
We tell clients where the next dollar does the most good, and where it does not.
Numerous national political awards, including three 2026 Reed Awards and three Pollies from the American Association of Political Consultants.
