Our Team - The Mellman Group

Mark S. Mellman (1955-2025) .

Mark founded The Mellman Group in 1982, conducting surveys out of graduate student housing at Yale to help a long-shot Democratic challenger upset an incumbent Republican Congressman. He built the firm into one of the nation’s premier public opinion research and political consulting firms, serving leading political figures, Fortune 500 companies, and many of the country’s most important public interest organizations.

Over four decades, Mark helped win more than fifty U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races, more than one hundred congressional campaigns, and a long list of local, state, and international elections. He also helped to win some of the most consequential ballot measure fights, including helping to pass the recent constitutional amendment for abortion rights in Michigan, the first of its kind in the country.

He worked closely with leaders of the House and Senate, including House Leaders Richard Gephardt and Steny Hoyer and Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Harry Reid. One of Mark’s crowning achievements was helping Senator Reid win his final reelection campaign. When every other public and private poll showed Reid going down to defeat, Mark was alone in showing him on track to win. He stood his ground, trusting in the accuracy of our rigorous methodology, and helped win a race other polls misread.

Mark was an innovator in public opinion research, bringing new approaches to sample design, survey methodology, and research technology. He combined the academic disciplines of statistics and public opinion research with practical political strategy and often found a winning path when others could not see one.

His peers recognized his impact. Under his leadership, The Mellman Group became the first firm to be honored three times with the AAPC’s Pollster of the Year award. He served as president of the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) and was inducted into the Political Consultants Hall of Fame.

At a time when so many take shots at political consultants and especially pollsters, Mark believed in the essential role they play in a healthy democracy. He worked to build up the field and the community of political consulting and polling.

Mark was a teacher at heart, not only returning to teach at Yale, but constantly mentoring people at the firm and far beyond it. He offered guidance, perspective, and when needed a perfectly timed joke to so many working in politics. He built this firm not just as a business but as a community. He took genuine joy in mentoring young staff, celebrating colleagues’ successes, and helping generations of strategists, pollsters, and advocates find their voice. His door and his inbox were always open.

Above all, Mark was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather who took immeasurable pride in his family and who welcomed colleagues as part of that family.

His Jewish faith and his sense of responsibility to tikkun olam, repairing the world, were central to who he was, both personally and professionally.

Mark was a pioneer in our field and a deeply cherished member of our family at The Mellman Group. The loss is profound, but so is the legacy he leaves in the institutions he built, the leaders he helped elect, the causes he advanced, and the countless people he lifted along the way.

May Mark’s memory be a blessing and a source of strength for all of us as we carry his work and his values forward.

Michael J. Bloomfield .

Michael Bloomfield is the Executive V.P. and Managing Director of The Mellman Group, which has provided analysis and strategic advice to political leaders, interest groups, Fortune 500 companies, and government agencies for over thirty years. The Mellman Group is the only three-time winner of “Pollster of the Year” honors from the American Association of Political Consultant.

Michael has established a reputation for helping Democrats win in so-called “red states”. He helped Brian Schweitzer get elected, as the first Democratic Governor in Montana in two decades – and then worked with the DGA on independent expenditures to elect and re-elect his successor, Steve Bullock. He has been the pollster for the North Carolina House for nearly 20 years –helping them pick up seats even during the toughest election cycles.

Michael has helped win elections with award winning campaigns across the county. These include John Barrow for Congress in Georgia which was recognized by The Washington Post and The Rothenberg Report as one of the best campaigns in the country; Mike Duggan for Mayor of Detroit which won a Reed Award from Campaigns and Elections as “Best Bare Knuckled Street Fight”; and the Garden State Forward Independent Expenditure in New Jersey recognized by Campaigns and Elections as one of the top victories in the country for protecting a Democratic legislative majority in spite of a 20 point landslide for the Republican Governor.

He helped pass Prop 22 in California, to protect app-based drivers, which was the costliest initiative battle in the nation’s history. Then came back the next cycle to help defeat the gaming initiative in California, despite even higher spending, setting a new national record.

He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, the BBC and Fox with his analysis of elections and political trends, and has been published in the New York Times and the Jerusalem Post.

Before joining The Mellman Group, he served as Political Director of AIPAC, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee. During his tenure, Capitol Hill’s newspaper, Roll Call, selected him as one of the fifty most influential people working behind the scenes in Washington, and AIPAC was twice ranked as the second most effective lobbying organization by Fortune Magazine. He managed a local campaign in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio and later worked on Capitol Hill for Senators Don Riegle, Howard Metzenbaum, and Edward Kennedy. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan.

He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and children. He qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon, which was his fifth, and possibly last marathon (but still runs a 10-K now and then).

April J. Nickens .

April Nickens is the Director of Operations and senior moderator for The Mellman Group. She has been a member of the firm since 2000.

All business and personal affairs for Mr. Mellman are handled through April. She also aides in the handling of all client relationships and marketing for The Mellman Group. Overseeing and managing the day-to-day operations of The Mellman Group, April is responsible for the firm’s financial operations as well as serving as the firm’s Benefits Administrator. April led the project to redesign and develop The Mellman Group’s new website which launched in 2011.

April is also a seasoned qualitative researcher with over a decade of experience. A skilled and trained focus group moderator, April specializes in African-American and female focus groups. She has conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews on a wide array of topics such as health care, education, civil and human rights, energy, the environment, sex trafficking, women’s issues and politics. She has the ability to connect and gain insight with all types of voters and consumers on a wide range of issues.

April has extensive experience in customer service and public affairs. Prior to joining The Mellman Group, April served as Director of Training for Kiplinger Computer and Mailing Services, a direct marketing service provider specializing in data processing, mailing, and fulfillment operations. She is credited with designing and implementing their intensive training program and authoring the manual for all customer service representatives in the Kiplinger customer service call center.

In addition to her extensive professional experience, April is educated in Marketing and Business Administration. She received rigorous instruction in focus group moderation and in-depth qualitative interviewing at the RIVA Training Institute, in Bethesda, MD. She is currently based in Washington D.C.

Emily Dohler Rodas .

Emily Dohler Rodas is an Analyst at The Mellman Group. Emily is a researcher and advocate whose work bridges data, policy, and community engagement. She holds a Master’s in Applied Political Analytics and a B.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, combining analytical expertise with grassroots organizing experience.

Throughout her career, Emily has remained deeply committed to elevating the voices of underrepresented communities through civic outreach, legislative research focused on Latinx and immigrant populations, and mental health advocacy for underserved youth in Washington, D.C. During her master’s program, she examined how internationally marginalized communities perceive the United States, culminating in a thesis focused on Colombia. This global perspective continues to inform her approach to research and analysis.

Prior to joining The Mellman Group, Emily served as a Research and Analytics Specialist at Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. There, she conducted labor-focused research to support worker-centered organizing, advocacy, and electoral campaigns. Her work included survey design, voter and issue analysis, randomized controlled trials, data visualization, and the development of research products that informed strategic decision-making and outreach to working-class communities.

Emily has worked across a range of environments—from county council offices to early childhood classrooms to labor-affiliated organizing spaces—using each opportunity to build inclusive, informed, and data-driven approaches to systemic issues. A bilingual communicator and community organizer, she has helped lead mobilizations against gun violence, registered new voters, and collaborated with organizations such as CASA de Maryland and the Pride Fund to End Gun Violence.

A DMV native, Emily brings a people-centered perspective to her work and is committed to using research to advance meaningful social and political change.

Charles Apgar .

Charles is the Field Director and one of our analysts at The Mellman Group. He helps coordinate and manage all research projects including focus groups, surveys, and all other qualitative and quantitative work. On top of that, he has applied his experiences to all aspects of The Mellman Group’s services, from writing messaging in our polling to analyzing data and campaign strategy.

He works with all facets of the research process including sampling, fielding, survey administration, translation, and online research. He helps keep The Mellman Group on the cutting edge of methodological and technological innovation.

Before joining The Mellman Group, Charles worked to help elect Democrats and progressives at the state and federal level. Throughout his college years, Charles interned with the Mikie Sherrill and Christine Clarke campaigns, learning the ins and outs of what it takes to run a political campaign on both the state and federal level.

Charles studied Political Science, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. As a New Jersey native, Charles enjoys spending his free time rooting for the NY Giants and surfing at the Jersey Shore.

Dave Tollaksen .

Dave has worked for over 20 years to help Democratic campaigns and progressive causes succeed at the ballot box. In 2024, Dave helped Jared Golden (ME-2) win re-election in one of the most pro-Trump districts in the country and in 2022 helped Seth Magaziner (RI-2) win election to Congress in one of the first major upsets of the night.

A native of Wisconsin, he is particularly proud of being a part of Tony Evers’ team to defeat Governor Scott Walker in what The Washington Post called “potentially the greatest victory in the midterms.”

Dave has helped the California Teachers Association and its allies turn back a $60 million effort by anti-education forces to elect its pro-education candidates for governor and superintendent of public instruction, worked with the DSCC IE re-elect Senator Jon Tester in a state Trump won by over 20 points, helped Dan Kildee win re-election in MI-8, and assisted Senator Maria Cantwell’s re-election effort.

Dave has also helped win some of the toughest initiative campaigns in the country, including helping California’s Native American Tribes defend their tribal sovereignty and defeat California Proposition 27, helped pass Question 7 in the most expensive campaign ever waged in Maryland, the first tax increase in California in over 30 years, and helped pass background checks in Nevada.

Dave has conducted hundreds of groups on topics from politics to homelessness, poverty, health care, clean energy, the environment, the economy, civil rights, nutrition, and education, among others, in the United States as well as in Colombia, Romania, Israel, and South Africa.

Dave graduated from The University of Notre Dame with a degree in economics and political science with a focus on applied quantitative methodology. He uses any excuse he can find to make it back to the Midwest to play golf or watch the Brew Crew or Fighting Irish.