{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=A8194689-71B5-4163-9F9D-D03C0F4167BE", "Alexander Announces Staff Changes", "2016-12-09", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander today announced the following staff changes:\r\nLiz Wolgemuth will be promoted to Senior Communications Director and Speechwriter, replacing Jim Jeffries, who is moving to Seattle. Margaret Atkinson will be promoted to Communications Director.\r\nAlexander said: \u201cWashington, D.C.\u2019s loss is Washington state\u2019s gain. Jim Jeffries is one of the savviest and most reliable media advisers in the nation\u2019s capital. He has surely earned my respect during our eight years together. While I will greatly miss him, I am delighted he has this excellent professional opportunity with Paul Allen.\u201d\r\nLiz and Margaret will oversee all of Alexander\u2019s press efforts, in Tennessee, as chairman of the HELP committee, as chairman of the Appropriations Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and as a member of the Senate\u2019s committees on energy and rules.\r\nJIM JEFFRIES\r\nJim Jeffries is leaving one Washington and moving to another\u2014in January, he will join Seattle-based Vulcan, Inc., as head of executive communications for Paul Allen. Jeffries joined the Alexander team in 2009 and served as communications director over Alexander\u2019s personal office and the HELP Committee since 2013. Jim was Alexander\u2019s principal communications advisor and media spokesman. Jim started in Congress in 2002 with then-Congressman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), after which he served as speechwriter for then-House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio). Immediately prior to joining Alexander\u2019s team, Jim was a writer for Frank Luntz\u2019s language-strategy firm. Jim is a graduate of Brigham Young University, and he and his wife, Rachel, have three sons.\u00a0\r\nLIZ WOLGEMUTH\r\nLiz Wolgemuth, previously Alexander\u2019s Senior Communications Advisor and Speechwriter at the HELP committee, will assume the role of Senior Communications Director overseeing Alexander\u2019s press efforts. She previously served as Alexander\u2019s committee press secretary and was a press secretary in his Senate office. She was a senior editor at U.S News & World Report in Washington, D.C., before joining Alexander\u2019s team. She was previously a business reporter at the Northwest Herald in Illinois. She earned a Master of Science in Journalism at Northwestern University\u2019s Medill School of Journalism and a B.A. in English at Fordham University in New York City. Liz and her husband, Tim, have two children.\r\nMARGARET ATKINSON\r\nMargaret Atkinson, previously Press Secretary at the HELP Committee, will be Alexander\u2019s Communications Director. She joined the Alexander team in 2010 after graduating from the University of Georgia with a B.A. in Journalism and worked in Alexander\u2019s personal office until moving to the committee in 2014. Margaret is from Memphis, Tenn.\u00a0\r\n###\r\nFor access to this release and the senator\u2019s other statements, click here.\r\nTo stay up-to-date on the senator\u2019s latest actions, follow him on Twitter and YouTube.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=A8194689-71B5-4163-9F9D-D03C0F4167BE"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9128979872912169, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}