PERSON: Dan Kanninen

Smoot Tewes Group

Partner

Dan Kanninen has spent more than 15 years in influential positions at all levels of government and politics, playing key roles in policy making, campaigns, and political management. He currently manages and advises several advocacy campaigns as a Principal and Vice President for Issues and Advocacy at the Smoot Tewes Group.

He played a critical role in President Obama’s 2008 election as the State Director in Wisconsin after working in leadership positions in Wisconsin, Ohio and North Carolina during the primaries. Dan served the re-elect by overseeing the northeastern United States (a nine state, $20 million operation including the critical battlegrounds of New Hampshire and Pennsylvania) from Chicago headquarters before leading the Virginia operation as Senior Advisor, turning that state blue for just the second time since 1964.

In between campaign stints, Dan served as the White House Liaison at EPA, and as former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle’s Legislative Director. In that role, he was the lead negotiator of the $62 billion state budget bill, the first on time budget in more than three decades. Prior to that, he spent six years as Chief of Staff to a veteran Wisconsin state lawmaker serving on the budget committee.

Dan is an established political voice in the beltway, featured frequently this cycle on MSNBC, as well as being on the record in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post and Politico.

An avid Badger fan, Dan studied political science at the University of Wisconsin.

— smoottewes.com