Politics demands you switch gears constantly—one day you’re crafting messages for rural voters in South Carolina, the next you’re advising foreign governments on U.S. relations. Most people excel in one lane. They stick with what they know.
Nick Muzin doesn’t fit that mold. His career winds its way through medical school, Yale Law, congressional offices, presidential campaigns, and international consulting. He jumped from helping Tim Scott win a tough primary to raising $100 million for Ted Cruz’s presidential bid, then founded Stonington Global.
What ties these disparate experiences together? Let’s peek behind the curtain at how Muzin adjusts his playbook for each unique political context while maintaining a consistent core approach.
The Underdog Whisperer
Remember 2010? The Tea Party wave crashed through American politics, and Tim Scott rode it straight to Congress. But before that victory, Scott faced what seemed like impossible odds in the South Carolina primary—competing against Paul Thurmond (son of legendary Senator Strom Thurmond) and Carroll Campbell (son of a popular former governor).
Nick Muzin crafted a strategy that leaned into Scott’s authentic strengths. According to Muzin, “Tim had served on the Charleston County Council for about 13 years. People in Charleston knew him — they liked him. It’s a small town, and he’d been a familiar presence for years. They were comfortable with him. I think the greater challenge came after he was elected to Congress — he didn’t want to be pigeonholed as just ‘the Black Republican.'”
The approach worked brilliantly. Scott didn’t just win—he defeated several well-established political opponents. When Scott landed in Washington as part of the freshman Republican class, Muzin gained entrée to leadership meetings with Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
What made this strategy tick? Muzin understood the local landscape intimately. He recognized that Scott’s strength came from his connection to Charleston voters who already knew him, not from national Republican talking points. He helped Scott position himself as a conservative with a distinct voice rather than allowing others to define him primarily by his race.
Presidential Politics Demands Different Muscles
Moving from congressional staff work to presidential campaigning requires a whole new skillset. When Nick Muzin joined Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid as deputy chief of staff and senior advisor, he shifted gears dramatically.
Presidential campaigns operate at warp speed with national scrutiny and cutthroat competition. Muzin’s approach? Build specialized coalitions and raise serious money.
What The Washington Post later called “the best run campaign of 2016” relied on Muzin’s ability to cultivate relationships with donors and key constituencies. He reportedly raised over $100 million, turning Cruz into Trump’s main competitor.
Money talks in presidential politics, but so does coalition-building. Muzin understood both requirements. The strategies that worked for Tim Scott in Charleston wouldn’t work for Ted Cruz nationally. Muzin adjusted accordingly, focusing on building national donor networks and connecting with specific communities where Cruz’s message might resonate.
When Medical Knowledge Meets Political Reality
Few political operatives bring medical expertise to healthcare battles. Nick Muzin’s MD from Einstein Medical College gives him unusual credibility when healthcare policy hits the political arena.
During his time at Williams and Connolly law firm, Muzin represented doctors, Georgetown Hospital, and pharmaceutical companies in litigation. Later, he advised Senator Scott on healthcare policy as Obamacare rolled out.
COVID-19 created yet another healthcare-meets-politics context. According to Muzin, “Since the pandemic, we’ve done a lot of health care in the United States, a lot of domestic represented pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, nursing homes.” His medical training provides substantive knowledge while his political experience helps clients navigate regulatory labyrinths.
Healthcare policy requires speaking multiple languages: medical terminology, legal frameworks, and political realities. Muzin translates between these worlds, using his unusual combination of expertise to help clients understand what’s possible and what’s not.
Medical contexts demand precision and evidence-based thinking—quite different from the emotional appeals that often drive electoral politics. Muzin adjusts his approach accordingly, bringing technical sophistication without losing political pragmatism.
The Month-to-Month Mentality
Across all these contexts—congressional campaigns, presidential politics, international consulting, healthcare policy—Nick Muzin maintains one consistent approach: prove your value every single month.
While most lobbying firms lock clients into long-term contracts, Stonington Global works month-to-month. “Every other firm requires a six-month or even a year-long retainer. We’ve always operated month to month.” Muzin explains. “That’s because we want to be fully invested in our clients. If, after a month, they don’t see the value, we don’t want to take their money or waste anyone’s time.”
Clients come to Muzin with urgent problems requiring immediate action. He describes crisis situations: “Our clients are extremely results-driven. I’ll get calls like, ‘If this bill doesn’t pass, my company’s going under.’ These high-stakes situations require intense focus and fast results.”
Different contexts require different measures of success. For campaigns, victory means winning elections. For international clients, success means policy changes. For healthcare clients, favorable regulatory outcomes matter most. Muzin adapts his metrics accordingly while maintaining his prove-your-worth-monthly philosophy.
What remains constant is Muzin’s relationship-centered approach. “It’s exclusively referral,” he notes.”It’s all referral-based — my network and the people I know, who then refer others the same way.” Rather than marketing himself broadly, he builds deep relationships that generate trust and new opportunities.
Nick Muzin’s career demonstrates that political effectiveness doesn’t mean mastering one context perfectly—it means developing transferable skills that work across diverse environments. His ability to shift between local politics, national campaigns, international relations, and specialized policy domains while maintaining core principles offers lessons for anyone seeking to expand their political impact beyond a single context.