Paul Tewes is a

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

strategist specializing in national political organizing in the United States. Tewes was the Iowa state director for

Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign The 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama began on February 10, 2007, when Barack Obama, then junior United States senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for President of the United States in Springfield, Illinois. After winning a ma ...

, and continued after the Iowa caucus to lead Obama's field operations in key states such as Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania. According to the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

, Tewes "is widely regarded among the very most talented of political organizers in the nation," and was "largely responsible for Obama's surprise win in Iowa".

Life and career

Paul Tewes grew up in Mountain Lake, Minnesota. In 1994, Tewes was a field director for Ann Wynia's US Senate Campaign in Minnesota.GWU Journal
/ref> The following election cycle, in 1996, he was Campaign Manager of Congressman

David Minge David R. Minge (born March 19, 1942) is an American former judge and politician. David Minge served as a judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals from 2002 until retiring at the end of March 2012. Previously, Minge was a Democratic–Farmer–L ...

's successful re-election bid to Minnesota's Second Congressional District. Then, in 1998, Tewes ran the successful re-election campaign of Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold. In 2000, Tewes was

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

's Iowa State Caucus director.Iowa Politics
From 2001 to 2004, he worked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), where he was the National Coordinated Campaign Director for the 2002 election cycle and the Political Director for the 2004 cycle. In 2005 Tewes partnered with Steve Hildebrand to form Hildebrand Tewes Consulting, a political campaign consulting firm with offices in Washington D.C. and Sioux Falls. In early 2007 Tewes and Hildebrand took a leave of absence from day-to-day operations of the firm to work for the Obama campaign—Hildebrand was Obama's Deputy Campaign Manager. Shortly after Barack Obama clinched the nomination of the Democratic Party for president, it was reported that Obama would send Tewes to the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...

(DNC) to overhaul the organization and help oversee fundraising. Howard Dean stayed on as DNC chairman. Tewes worked at New Partners consulting firm in Washington, D.C. following the 2008 election. He has since started his own consulting firm, the Smoot Tewes Group, with fellow 2008 Obama Campaign veteran Julianna Smoot. Tewes is a 1993 graduate of

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...

in Northfield, Minnesota.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tewes, Paul American political consultants Carleton College alumni Living people Carleton Knights football players Year of birth missing (living people)