Washington, DC — Today, the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) announced members of its senior staff, including the hiring of three new staff members. Michelle Ortiz will serve as the new Deputy Executive Director and Chief of Staff, Geoff Burgan as Communications Director, and Megan Hughes as Research Director. Members of the Senior Team will also include Emily Rossi as Digital Director and David Sanchez as Political Director.

Sean Rankin, Executive Director of the DAGA, released the following statement on the staffing announcement:

“We are excited to build out our senior staff as we prepare to enter 2022. We have a dynamic and growing team at DAGA that is already hard at work to re-elect our Democratic Attorneys General, flip states from red to blue, and push our work forward across the country. Attorneys General are on the frontlines of protecting Americans’ access to affordable health care and access to safe, legal abortion care, rooting out corruption at the highest levels of government, attacking our national gun violence epidemic, protecting consumers from predatory businesses, and much more.

“With 30 Attorneys General seats on the ballot in 2022, it’s crucial that we have a strong team at DAGA doing everything we can to support the leadership shown by our Democratic AGs, starting with re-electing our incumbents and adding to the number of Democratic AGs across states.”

Michelle Ortiz has worked for over 25 years nationwide as a political strategist, campaign manager and fundraiser. Most recently she worked as a consultant for End Citizens United advising on strategy for the west coast. She spent over seven years at EMILY’s List as the Western Director, advising key donors and staff, and directing investments for major donors and PAC portfolios. Prior to that, she worked for Equality California where she raised over $22 million dollars to fuel California’s successful campaign for marriage equality in the state and Proposition 8 which propelled the court case in the Supreme Court.

Geoff Burgan has worked nationwide in senior communications roles at the federal and state level. He most recently served as Communications Director for Senator Edward J. Markey, and worked as Arizona Communications Director for the Biden-Harris campaign, helping flip Arizona for only the second time in the last seventy years. Prior to that he served as National Communications Director for Organizing Together 2020 and Iowa Communications Director for Beto O’Rourke. In 2018, he served as Communications Director for Florida’s Andrew Gillum in one of the nation’s most historic midterm races, helping lead him to what the New York Times called “one of the most significant upsets” of the election cycle. He is an alum of the offices of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and an international public affairs firm. You can follow him on Twitter at @GeoffBurgan.

Megan Hughes has led winning campaign research teams across the country, including on several high-profile U.S. Senate races. She most recently served as the Research Director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), during the committee’s successful effort to flip the U.S. Senate blue. Before that she worked as the Research Director on Sen. Sherrod Brown’s successful reelection campaign. She also served as Evan Bayh’s Research Director and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s Deputy Research Director and worked in research associate roles both at the DSCC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Before her career in politics, Megan worked as a public defender in her home state of Georgia.

Emily Rossi has nearly a decade of senior-level political communications experience, including more than six years on Capitol Hill where she served as Digital Director to U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Claire McCaskill, as well as the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee (Minority staff). In addition to her Capitol Hill experience, Emily served as Associate Director of Content Strategy at Rising Tide Interactive during the 2018 election cycle, and has provided communication services to organizations in the public and private sectors.

David Sanchez has over a decade of non-profit and campaign leadership experience. He most recently was the president of Our Poder, a political consulting firm that managed and built voter engagement programs. Prior to that he served as Campaign Manager for US Senate candidate Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez. In 2018, he was the Civic Engagement Director for Jolt Texas, where he helped build Jolt into the state’s largest Latino civic engagement organization, helping flip six seats that cycle and registering thousands of new voters. In 2016, David was the campaign manager for Missouri State Treasurer candidate Judy Baker. He also worked across the southwest in senior roles for the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign. He served as Texas Deputy State Director, Arizona GOTV Director, Nevada State Convention Coordinator and in a senior capacity on the national delegate team.