--- title: Last Top Aide from 2008 Obama Campaign to Leave White House description: Dan Pfeiffer, one of President Barack Obama's closest and longest serving remaining advisors, will depart the administration in mid-March. canonical: https://time.com/3695789/dan-pfeiffer-departure/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-04T19:13:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:09:19.519Z article:section: Politics og:title: Last Top Aide from 2008 Campaign to Leave White House og:description: He's been with President Obama since 2007. og:url: https://time.com/3695789/dan-pfeiffer-departure/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88bb8122c1d02b58/69877daf5f570f26abb1519a/dan-pfeiffer2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2667 og:image:height: 1500 og:image:alt: Howard Daniel "Dan" Pfeiffer, White House senior advisor, speaks during an interview in Washingto, on Nov. 7, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Last Top Aide from 2008 Campaign to Leave White House twitter:description: He's been with President Obama since 2007. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88bb8122c1d02b58/69877daf5f570f26abb1519a/dan-pfeiffer2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Last Top Aide from 2008 Campaign to Leave White House > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Feb 4, 2015 7:13 PM UTC  Howard Daniel "Dan" Pfeiffer, White House senior advisor, speaks during an interview in Washingto, on Nov. 7, 2014. Howard Daniel "Dan" Pfeiffer, White House senior advisor, speaks during an interview in Washingto, on Nov. 7, 2014. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Feb 4, 2015 7:13 PM UTC Dan Pfeiffer, one of President Barack Obama’s closest and longest serving remaining advisors, will depart the administration in mid-March, the White House confirmed Wednesday. Pfeiffer, Obama’s senior advisor for strategy and communications, was previously White House communications director and communications director for the president’s 2008 campaign. News of his departure was first reported by the New York _Times_. “Dan has been beside me on every step of this incredible journey, starting with those earliest days of the campaign in 2007,” Obama said in a statement. “And through it all, he’s been smart, steady, tireless and true to the values we started with. Like everyone else in the White House, I’ve benefited from his political savvy and his advocacy for working people. He’s a good man and a good friend, and I’m going to miss having him just down the hall from me.” A White House official said Pfeiffer informed Obama he would depart the day after the State of the Union address last month aboard Air Force One. Pfeiffer had been publicly mulling leaving the administration for some time. Pfeiffer has been credited inside the administration with cheerleading the embrace of new media technologies to circumvent traditional news outlets and reach Americans on the media they use. The official said before departing, Pfeiffer is leading a review of how to continue to adapt the White House communications operation to take advantage of new tools. “Over the last few months, he’s been leading an internal review of how we structure our communications apparatus in a rapidly changing media environment – including meeting with Silicon Valley experts to develop recommendations for how we best communicate to audiences in the digital age,” the official said. “Dan will finish this project before departing in early March.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3695789/dan-pfeiffer-departure/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3695789/dan-pfeiffer-departure/"},"headline":"Last Top Aide from 2008 Campaign to Leave White House","datePublished":"2015-02-04T19:13:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:09:19.519Z","description":"Dan Pfeiffer, one of President Barack Obama's closest and longest serving remaining advisors, will depart the administration in mid-March.","url":"https://time.com/3695789/dan-pfeiffer-departure/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88bb8122c1d02b58/69877daf5f570f26abb1519a/dan-pfeiffer2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88bb8122c1d02b58/69877daf5f570f26abb1519a/dan-pfeiffer2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Howard Daniel \"Dan\" Pfeiffer, White House senior advisor, speaks during an interview in Washingto, on Nov. 7, 2014.","caption":"Howard Daniel \"Dan\" Pfeiffer, White House senior advisor, speaks during an interview in Washingto, on Nov. 7, 2014.","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3695789/dan-pfeiffer-departure/","name":"Last Top Aide from 2008 Campaign to Leave White House"}}]}] ```