Politico deputy managing editor Rachel Van Dongen is leaving for The Washington Post, where she’ll “lead a new initiative for the National desk,” The Washington Post announced Thursday.
Van Dongen left the Post to join Politico in 2011 as the news organization was staffing up to cover the 2012 campaign. At Politico, Van Dongen coordinated coverage for some of Washington’s biggest stories, according to the Post, including “the government shutdown, the debt ceiling wars, sequestration and other episodes of Congressional drama.”
In her previous stint at The Post, Van Dongen oversaw The Fix and Post Politics blogs, according to the announcement.
Van Dongen’s is one of several senior-level editors that have left Politico in advance of the 2016 presidential election. Deputy managing editors Laura McGann, Dianna Heitz and Gregg Birnbaum have all departed within the last eight months, followed in some cases by other Politico journalists. Managing editor Rachel Smolkin also left during that time period.
Politico, meanwhile, has replenished its ranks with several high-profile hires. In February, NPR politics editor Charlie Mahtesian joined; Jack Shafer, formerly a media columnist with Reuters, came aboard in January. Politico also announced the hiring of Marilyn Thompson as deputy editor in January, along with White House editor Maura Reynolds.
Correction: A previous version of this story identified Rachel Smolkin as a deputy managing editor at Politico. In fact, she was managing editor for news there.
