Aristotle, Inc.
Aristotle, Inc. is a private U.S. company started in 1983 by brothers John Aristotle Phillips and Dean Aristotle Phillips. It specializes in data mining and fundraising consulting for political campaigns, helping campaigns target voters more precisely by combining voter lists with personal data. The firm is based on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and had about 100 staff in 2012 with offices in several cities.
John Aristotle Phillips became known in the 1970s as "A-Bomb Kid" after a public paper about building a weapon from open sources. He later ran for Congress in Connecticut and, though he lost, he and Dean created early software on an Apple II that turned a voter list into a simple database, which attracted attention from campaigns.
Aristotle, Inc. was formed as a nonpartisan technology consultant for campaigns. It has worked for many presidents and campaigns, including Reagan and Mondale in 1984, Clinton, Bush, and Perot in 1992, and later many others. The company has advised almost every White House occupant since Reagan and has also sold data to commercial clients. Its voter profiles can include cars, ethnicity, income, employers, and up to about 25 other factors.
In 1995 John and Dean Phillips briefly organized Dean's presidential bid mainly for business reasons, which expanded Aristotle's access to data at lower prices in some areas. By 2000 the client list included numerous senators, House members, and party committees. Ownership stakes later included investment from Hambrecht & Co. and News Corp. By 2012 Aristotle reported a large database of U.S. voters and millions of voters in the U.K. In 2021 the Federal Trade Commission said Aristotle would no longer be treated as a self-regulatory organization enforcing COPPA.
Phillips has been praised by some for helping democracies and criticized by others for privacy concerns. He has assisted political actors abroad, including Ukraine in 2004, Venezuela, and Kenya in 2017.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:04 (CET).