President
Christy Setzer
A political and communications strategist with more than 20 years’ experience in national politics, crafts hard-hitting strategies that win elections, inform policy and drive the national conversation.
Meet Christy
Christy Setzer is the President and Founder of New Heights Communications, a Washington, DC public affairs firm that provides strategic and communications counsel to mission-driven clients.
Setzer frequently appears on cable television news offering the Democratic/progressive perspective on news of the day. On Election Night 2016, she served as an on-air commentator for CNBC. In 2020, she offered MSNBC audiences commentary on her home state of Pennsylvania as President Biden sealed his victory there. She is a regular guest on CNN and has appeared on NPR, BBC, Fox News, Bloomberg TV and more. Christy also enjoys speaking to audiences on women’s leadership, public relations and politics. In 2018, she was named one of the “top 100 most influential political professionals of the year” by Washington COMPOL magazine.
Setzer started New Heights in 2010 after more than a decade on campaigns and working for progressive causes. She served as a national spokesperson on the presidential campaigns of Vice President Al Gore, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, and Senator Christopher J. Dodd. She set national communications strategy and directed media relations for the AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Service Employees International Union.
Setzer’s communications programs are creative, tight and often devastating. An opposition campaign she ran against U.S. Chamber of Commerce so damaged the big business group that it hired several “cyber-intelligence firms” in a multi-million dollar effort to discredit her and her client, noting in a leaked memo that, “All of [Setzer’s] tactics…have hindered the CoC’s efforts, but their messaging campaigns continue to be the most effective.”
Setzer is a graduate of Vassar College and lives in Washington, DC with her husband and son.
Fun Fact: Eight-year-old Christy spent her bout with chicken pox reading about the U.S. Presidents in her grandparents’ set of encyclopedias. She has always been like this.
