Rick Murphy is a partner in FTP’s federal government relations practice and leads the firm’s Republican advocacy. He works at the center of Senate Republican politics, with deep relationships in Republican leadership and across the conferences, committees, and federal agencies where policy is decided. A former Senate chief of staff, he guides Fortune 500 companies, investors, and trade associations across energy and utilities, technology and telecom, transportation and aviation, aerospace and defense, financial services, and consumer goods. Clients rely on Rick for direct access to the Republican leaders and members who decide outcomes in the U.S. Senate.
As chief of staff to Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Rick ran a 40-person operation and directed the senator’s legislative and political agendas in daily coordination with Republican leadership. He is a prolific fundraiser for Republican candidates and the statewide campaigns that decide the majority. In a chamber that still runs on personal relationships, Rick’s run a generation deep.
Rick began his career on Judd Gregg’s (R-NH) 1992 Senate campaign, serving as chief field operative and building a statewide operation county by county before following Gregg to Washington for his first stint in the U.S. Senate. Before returning to the Senate with Senator Ayotte, he spent 15 years running his own federal lobbying firm, R.B. Murphy & Associates, where he represented Fortune 50 companies including Google and Altria, major trade associations, and the nation’s leading scientific organizations. A native of Middlebury, Connecticut, Rick holds a bachelor’s degree from New England College in New Hampshire.
Elizabeth is a director in FTP’s public affairs practice. She advises clients on strategic communications and leads media relations activities, from reporter engagement to earned media content development and placement.
She is a trusted strategist with proven success implementing winning campaign strategies across issue areas, including complex energy policy to challenging trade and other high-stakes issues. Her work is grounded in close collaboration with colleagues and clients alike, enabling her to quickly master tough topics and craft tailored strategies that advance each client’s goals.
Before joining FTP, Elizabeth managed constituent engagement and supported external communications for Congressman David Joyce (R-OH), serving on Capitol Hill for nearly three years.
Rachel Miller is a partner in FTP’s federal government relations practice and serves as the firm’s head of policy. Rachel also leads the firm’s energy practice as a highly-respected energy and environmental expert with 25 years of corporate, regulatory, and congressional experience.
Rachel joined the firm as a senior vice president in 2012, providing clients with unique government relations strategies, coalition management, third-party outreach, and deep ties within executive branch agencies and throughout Capitol Hill. Rachel’s deep knowledge of the federal appropriations and budget processes has proven to be an invaluable asset to clients. She has helped countless clients secure large Department of Energy grants, enabling their projects to move forward.
Prior to joining FTP, Rachel served as vice president of energy and environment practice at Capitol Solutions. Before that, she worked on mandatory climate change legislation and policies to support low-carbon power, as director of federal affairs for BP America. There, she co-founded the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Contact Group and managed BP’s legislative agenda within the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP).
She served for nearly four years as legislative assistant to the late Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the former chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, as a policy advisor on energy, transportation, and agriculture issues. While on Senator Feinstein’s staff, Rachel drafted legislation that laid the groundwork for the first statutory increase in fuel economy standards adopted since 1975. She also played a key role in drafting energy market transparency legislation that was eventually incorporated as part of the 2008 Farm Bill. Rachel previously served in the House of Representatives as a legislative assistant for former Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), focusing on energy policy, the environment, and education issues.
Rachel was the founder and president of the National Board of the Women’s Energy Network (WEN). Born and raised in New York, Rachel received a B,A. from Northwestern University and a Master’s degree in Political Management from George Washington University.
Sam is a senior vice president in FTP’s federal government relations practice. She leads the firm’s defense and national security work, having served over a decade in the United States Senate leading a policy portfolio related to national security and foreign relations. As the senior legislative assistant for Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), the then-ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, she was responsible for crafting the senator’s national security platform, including matters spanning the Senate’s Committees on Foreign Relations, Armed Services, Banking, Commerce, Science and Transportation, Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and Judiciary.
During her tenure in the Senate, Samantha managed the National Defense Authorization Act process, securing dozens of initiatives each fiscal year. Additionally, she served as the personal representative of the member (PRM) on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she advanced measures relating to democracy, human rights, and sanctions.
Samantha has cultivated and maintained a decade’s worth of relationships with policy experts, diplomats, contractors, and elected officials, which has been a leading contributor to the senator’s success in the enactment of bipartisan measures and building his policy record. Samantha is a graduate of Clemson University where she received a B.A. in Political Science and Government.
Rich Lopez is a senior vice president in FTP’s government relations practice, where he provides strategic counsel to clients across a range of industries on federal policy, appropriations, congressional engagement, and executive branch advocacy. He works closely with members of Congress, congressional committees, federal agencies, and stakeholder organizations to advance client priorities and secure legislative and regulatory outcomes. Rich has played a leading role in appropriations advocacy, transportation policy initiatives, defense authorization and appropriations efforts, border-related issues, and coalition-building efforts, while also supporting congressional testimony preparation, fundraising initiatives, and high-level stakeholder engagement. He serves on the Board of the Future Forum Foundation and on the Corporate Advisory Board of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI).
Prior to joining FTP, Rich served as director of federal and administration affairs at General Motors, where he led the company’s engagement with Congress and federal agencies on connected and autonomous vehicle policy, privacy, cybersecurity, safety, and diversity initiatives. He developed and executed GM’s outreach strategy to Hispanic members of Congress and leading national Hispanic organizations, while cultivating relationships across the administration and key regulatory agencies, including the Department of Transportation, Federal Trade Commission, and Federal Communications Commission.
Before General Motors, Richard spent nearly a decade with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers as senior director of federal government affairs. There, he led industry advocacy efforts on connected and autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity, intellectual property, transportation reauthorization, and vehicle safety policy. His accomplishments included helping secure passage of the “Cash for Clunkers” program, advancing the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, reestablishing the Congressional Auto Caucuses, and coordinating broad industry coalitions that influenced major legislative and regulatory outcomes.
Earlier in his career, Rich served as executive director of legislative affairs for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), where he represented more than 400 colleges and universities and helped secure significant federal investments for Hispanic-Serving Institutions. He also held leadership positions in political advocacy and fundraising organizations and worked for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Representative Joe Baca (D-CA), Texas State Senator Mario Gallegos (D), and the Texas Hospital Association. Throughout his career, Rich has built a reputation as a trusted advocate, coalition builder, and strategic advisor with deep relationships across Congress, federal agencies, industry, and the Hispanic community.
Natanya is senior account executive in FTP’s public affairs practice. She leads integrated campaigns across infrastructure, higher education, and healthcare, advising clients on messaging strategy, stakeholder engagement, and communications aligned across paid, earned, and owned channels. Her work has been recognized by Provoke Media and PRNews. She also oversees the firm’s intern program.
Prior to joining FTP full-time, Natanya interned with Blackstone, where she supported a nationwide public affairs campaign tied to the firm’s milestone of one trillion dollars in AUM. She also interned with the Columbus Partnership, where she coordinated advocacy for over $80 million in state and federal appropriations.
Natanya graduated with Honors from The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs with a B.S. in Public Policy Analysis.
Daniel serves as a senior vice president of policy and media strategy on FTP’s public affairs team. He is a trusted media relations and strategic communications advisor with government, public relations, and professional services industry experience. At FTP, Daniel helps clients protect reputations, advance interests, and establish themselves as credible and influential voices on the issues that matter most. He leads coalitions, devises media strategies, and offers incisive internal and external communications counsel. Before joining FTP, he led proactive media relations efforts and helped manage crisis communications for Deloitte’s government and public services practice.
For seven years prior, Daniel served as a senior communications advisor and spokesperson for Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD). In that role, he led media relations, external communications, and social media activities to elevate the Congressman’s profile and spotlight work on democracy reform, healthcare, energy, climate, and other major issues.
Before serving on Capitol Hill, Daniel worked at Powell Tate/Weber Shandwick, supporting earned media and digital advocacy campaigns for corporate, association, and nonprofit clients.
Connor is an associate in FTP’s federal government relations practice. His work spans policy areas including healthcare, trade, manufacturing, energy, AI, quantum computing, and prediction markets. Connor specializes in translating large volumes of legislative, regulatory, political, and stakeholder information into actionable insights. He also works on the firm’s efforts at the cutting edge of how policy intelligence is organized and consumed, developing dashboards, visualizations, and other tools that help teams synthesize critical information flows. Additionally, Connor conducts congressional and executive branch outreach, supports project management across client accounts, and coordinates the development of strategic communication materials.
Prior to joining FTP’s federal government relations practice, Connor interned with the firm’s state advocacy (governor engagement) team. Earlier in his career, he interned in the Colorado State Legislature and on Capitol Hill, worked on three political campaigns, and worked at a Colorado-based lobbying firm.
Libby is a partner and head of FTP’s government relations practice. She advises Fortune 500 corporations, investors, and major trade associations on their most consequential fights in Washington, from high-stakes legislation and regulatory threats to congressional investigations, reputational crises, and the political risk that can reshape an industry overnight. She holds longstanding, trusted relationships across House Democratic leadership, the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees, and the committees and members who drive critical outcomes across the American economy. A former House chief of staff who came up with winning campaigns in Alabama and red-leaning districts across the country, she has built her career on a conviction that real wins are achieved through bipartisan strategy designed around a durable coalition of support.
One of Washington’s leading healthcare and life sciences advocates, Libby was a key strategist on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry throughout the Affordable Care Act negotiations. In the years since, she has worked on every major piece of healthcare legislation and the defining fights over drug pricing, PBMs, the 340B program, physician reimbursement, and FDA reform. She fights to get new therapies into the hands of the patients who need them, to protect the reimbursement frameworks that put new cures within reach, and to keep American biotechnology and pharmaceutical innovation ahead of global competition. Her work extends across medical devices and diagnostics, most recently working to pass the 2026 law extending Medicare coverage to multi-cancer early detection, bringing a new generation of cancer screening to millions of Americans and changing the odds in the fight against cancer.
Across healthcare and the broader economy, Libby is sought out for the highest-stakes corporate battles, steering companies and industries through congressional investigations, reputational crises, and the political risk around mergers and acquisitions. Libby advises clients on the policy and politics that will define their industries, from food and agriculture to retail and trade, technology, AI, and the live events economy.
On Capitol Hill, Libby served as chief of staff to Representative Allen Boyd (D-FL) for nearly a decade, helping lead the Blue Dog Coalition to the height of its influence, growing its political operation tenfold, and recruiting and mentoring the moderate candidates who delivered the Democratic House majority in 2006. She helped write the Blue Dogs’ pay-as-you-go budget rules, enacted into federal law and still in force today, that require Congress to pay for what it spends, a cornerstone of the coalition’s fiscal legacy. Today she sits at the heart of the centrist coalition that decides close votes, the moderate members who hold the balance in a narrowly divided House. That work extends through Center Forward, the bipartisan organization she co-founded in 2010, now one of Washington’s leading conveners of cross-party dialogue. Libby’s political career began in Alabama, where she rose through state campaigns and Democratic politics before joining a national fundraising practice in Washington. She went on to serve as Representative Allen Boyd’s chief of staff for nearly a decade before joining Jeff Forbes in 2009 at the firm that would become Forbes Tate Partners (now FTP). A native of Birmingham, she holds a B.A.in English from Birmingham-Southern College, where she graduated with Distinction in Leadership Studies.
Jeff Forbes is the founding partner and chairman of FTP. A 20-year veteran of political campaigns at every level, Jeff began his involvement in politics more than 25 years ago on then-Senator Al Gore’s 1988 Presidential bid. Since that time, he has worked with and coordinated numerous campaigns, ranging from municipal candidates to the U.S. Congress, as well as the White House.
Prior to founding Forbes Tate Partners (FTP), Jeff was a founding partner at Forbes Tate’s predecessor, Cauthen Forbes & Williams. He served as the Democratic staff director for the US Senate Committee on Finance in 2003. Before assuming this role at the Committee, he served as chief of staff to former Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) from 1999-2002. Beyond his knowledge of the intricacies of tax and trade, Jeff is a veteran strategist for the Democratic National Committee. From 1993-1995 he served as Midwest political director. Jeff later served the national committee as chief of strategy in 1999.
A stalwart of the Clinton-Gore administration, Jeff was the New Hampshire field director for then-Governor Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign. In President Clinton’s 1996 re-election bid, he was deputy political director and director of delegate selection. Following the campaign, Jeff went on to serve as a special assistant to the President and staff director for legislative affairs in 1997. From 1998-99, he served as the deputy assistant to President Clinton and was the deputy director of scheduling at the White House. He also served as senior advisor to the Obama for President Campaign in New Hampshire in the 2008 presidential election. Jeff was a member of the Democratic National Committee’s special Democratic Change Commission to improve the presidential delegate selection process and has been a member of the DNC since 2009.
Jeff was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Northfield, Minnesota. He earned a B.A. in Political Science with an Economics minor from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in 1987. Jeff and his wife live in Chevy Chase, Maryland with their three sons.
