Warren hires top Iowa talent

Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced the hiring of four high-level staffers in Iowa with deep caucus experience – including snagging Sen. Bernie Sanders’ former caucus director for the early presidential state.

Warren’s team announced the hires on Wednesday, just as the Massachusetts Democrat is scheduled to make her first round of Iowa stops this weekend. On Monday, Warren announced an exploratory presidential bid, becoming the first major Democratic contender to do so.

Among the new hires is Brendan Summers, who served as Iowa caucus director and national caucus director to Sanders in 2016. It’s a notable recruit for Warren given Sanders’ unexpected success in the state and the perception that both Sanders and Warren are likely to draw from a similar progressive-minded base.

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“I think he knows caucus math better than anybody else in the country,” Pete D’Alessandro, Sanders’ former state director, said of Summers. “Basically, he wrote the caucus rules 10 years ago when he was the state‘s caucus director.”

Warren also brought on board Emily Parcell, political director for Barack Obama’s 2008 Iowa caucus team; Janice Rottenberg, who worked for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Iowa caucus and also served as organizing director for the Ohio Democratic Party; and Kane Miller, who worked as a field organizer for Obama in 2008 and most recently managed the successful campaign of Congresswoman-elect Abby Finkenauer, who defeated Republican Rep. Rod Blum in the northeast Iowa-based 1st Congressional District.

Unlike other potential 2020 contenders, Warren skipped visiting Iowa during the midterm elections while she sought reelection back home. She is now positioned to be the first major Democrat to visit in the new year.