Issue One expands communications team, hires Cory Combs to lead media relations

Communications professional Cory Combs this week joined Issue One as its new senior communications manager. 

Combs will manage Issue One’s media relation efforts, including serving as the main point of contact for reporters seeking comment from Issue One officials, as well as members of Issue One’s ReFormers Caucus and National Council on Election Integrity.

“As we build up our communications team, we are thrilled to welcome Cory as our new senior communications manager,” said Issue One Founder and CEO Nick Penniman. “Cory has a track record of success and brings an infectious enthusiasm to his work. Cory will help Issue One to continue to elevate our brand, forge more relationships with journalists, and call more attention to the commonsense solutions needed to fix our broken political system.”

Combs comes to Issue One with extensive media relations and communications experience. Prior to joining Issue One this week, he worked at the firm Sunshine Sachs for the past five and a half years, and he worked at the firm CLS Strategies for two and a half years prior to that. 

In those roles, Combs worked with a variety of organizations in the nonprofit, advocacy, social impact, and entertainment spaces. This included successfully launching the Eaton Workshop hotel chain in 2018, helping execute strategic communications plans for Instagram during the 2016 presidential election, gaining press attention for the nation’s leading HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations, and assisting with media relations for thousands of former NFL players who sued the league over concussion-related injuries, which resulted in a historic settlement valued at over $1 billion.

Combs resides in Washington, D.C., and is a 2012 graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Cory can be reached via telephone at 202-204-8553 and via email at ccombs@issueone.org.