Sen.-elect John Fetterman has appointed a Philadelphia organizer and a longtime Congressional staffer to two top positions in his new Senate staff.
Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s transition committee co-chair and a Senate veteran who served as deputy chief of staff to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, will be his chief of staff and Joseph Pierce, who most recently headed up government relations for a nonprofit group, will be the Pennsylvania state director.
Jentleson has led the transition committee along with Kristen Gentile, chief of staff to Sen. Bob Casey.
In a statement, Fetterman said that Jentleson and Pierce are “the best in their fields” and he felt “honored” that they will serve in his office.
“It will be invaluable to have a veteran of the Senate and a veteran of state politics in these key positions as we serve the people of Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said.
Jentleson has worked on the presidential campaigns of Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards. He is also the author of “Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.”
Jentleson has also managed teams in the nonprofit sector, notably at the Center for American Progress and the CAP Action Fund, according to the statement. He helped found Democracy Forward, a nonprofit advocacy watchdog group, in 2017 and co-founded the nonprofit strategy organization Battle Born Collective in 2021.
Pierce previously served as director of government relations and advocacy for the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Mental Health Partnerships.
He was campaign manager for former Philadelphia City Councilman Derek Green in 2019 and state political director for Casey’s re-election campaign in 2018.
Pierce also has experience in the labor movement, having worked for both AFSCME and SEIU 32BJ. He serves on Planned Parenthood Southeastern PA’s board of directors.