Ballard Partners’ lobbying revenue passes its 2025 total in nine months

By Beatrix Holloway

WASHINGTON — Ballard Partners reported $97.3 million in federal lobbying revenue in the first nine months of 2026, already more than the $88.1 million it reported for all of 2025, according to the firm’s Lobbying Disclosure Act filings. Through September, the firm’s fees were up about 64% from the $59.5 million it reported in the same period last year.

The firm, founded by Florida lobbyist Brian Ballard, has added several former Trump administration officials over the past year. “She has operated at the very highest levels of the intelligence community and the federal budget process,” Ballard said in July when the firm announced that Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a former deputy director of national intelligence, would co-chair its emerging technology and artificial intelligence practice. When it hired former Pentagon legislative affairs official Jimmy Sapp in September, Ballard said few people understood “the inner workings of the Pentagon, the legislative process, and the national security priorities of this Administration” as well as Sapp.

The revenue figures are firm revenue: the fees clients reported paying Ballard Partners for federal lobbying. They do not show what any individual earns. The Inquisitor counted each client once per quarter, using the most recent amended report where one exists.

Quarter by quarter

Ballard filed reports for 410 clients through September, up from 352 in all of 2025. The Inquisitor counted 126 clients that paid the firm in 2026 but did not appear on its 2025 reports; together they accounted for about $31.8 million in fees.

Largest accounts

The newest arrivals

Brian Ballard is listed on 367 of the firm’s 410 clients this year, as the Inquisitor reported Monday. Among the firm’s more recent hires from government:

• Micah Ketchel, who joined in November 2025 to chair the firm’s critical minerals practice, according to the firm’s announcement. His filings list service as special assistant to the president and senior adviser to the national security adviser in 2025, as a State Department senior adviser and as chief of staff to then-Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., from 2019 to 2025. He is listed on 43 clients this year, on engagements worth about $14.8 million in fees, including 3M, Cisco, Coupang, Supermicro and Anthropic. The Inquisitor reported on his first registrations Oct. 20.
• Thomas Boodry, whose filings list him as a special assistant to the president and senior director for legislative affairs at the National Security Council from January to April 2025, after serving as Waltz’s legislative director. He is listed on 25 clients worth about $9.2 million, including Korea Zinc, Northrop Grumman, Novo Nordisk and Supermicro.
• Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, who joined in July. Her filings list service as deputy director of national intelligence and as an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget in 2025 and 2026. She first appears on third-quarter reports, on 11 clients worth about $4.7 million that quarter, including Anthropic ($380,000, “advocacy regarding US policy regarding AI”), IonQ and Cisco.
• Jimmy Sapp, who joined in September after serving as principal deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the Pentagon from January 2025 and as acting chief of staff to Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg from March to July 2026, according to the firm. He is listed on the third-quarter report for American Rheinmetall ($150,000, on “Army armored vehicle production and procurement”) and on a report for Alloy Energy.
• Tucker Knott, chief of staff to Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., from 2023 to 2026, according to his filings, which add that his “lobbying does not include Senate.” He is listed on nine clients worth about $2.2 million, including Zoox, 3M and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Federal ethics law, 18 U.S.C. 207, bars many senior executive branch officials from lobbying their former agency for one year after leaving, and bars the most senior from contacting a wider set of officials for two years; senior congressional staff face a one-year ban on lobbying their former office or chamber. Whether a restriction applies depends on a person’s position and pay. Lobbying reports list the agencies a firm contacted for each issue, not which lobbyist made each contact. The Anthropic report, for example, lists the Defense Department, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Council and the White House among the entities contacted, and names five Ballard lobbyists on the account. Nothing in the filings indicates that any lobbyist contacted an office they are barred from contacting.

The fees listed for each lobbyist are what clients paid the firm on engagements where that person is named; several lobbyists usually share an account, so the totals overlap and are not personal earnings.

Request for comment

The Washington Inquisitor is seeking comment from Ballard Partners, through its communications office, on its growth and on how the firm handles post-government restrictions for Fox Kennedy, Sapp, Ketchel, Boodry and Knott. It is also seeking comment from Anthropic and American Rheinmetall on their engagements, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Pentagon on post-employment guidance for former officials, and from the Brennan Center for Justice and the Campaign Legal Center, which study lobbying and ethics rules. This story will be updated with any responses.