Peter Schorsch
Newly minted U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz has added Micah Ketchel as his Chief of Staff in Washington.
Ketchel has worked as a political consultant, attorney and policy adviser for dozens of candidates and elected officials across the country. He also served as a staffer in both the Florida House and Congress, where he was a policy adviser and counsel to U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller and the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
In the 2012 cycle, Ketchel worked at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Independent Expenditure team where he oversaw numerous successful races on the east coast and in Florida. Micah continued his career in politics by joining the Republican State Leadership Committee and Republican Attorneys General Association for the 2014 and 2016 cycles, helping steer political and issue advocacy spending across all 50 states.
Ketchel, an honors graduate of Florida State University Law School, returned to the Sunshine State for the 2018 cycle where he served dozens of candidates and organizations in Florida and across the country as a political consultant for Gainesville-based firm Data Targeting.
He now heads back to Washington to run the day-to-day for Waltz, who was elected in November to succeed now-Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. CD 6 covers parts of St. Johns, Lake, Flagler and Volusia counties along the state’s Atlantic coast.
In his new job, Ketchel’s work for Miller and the House Veterans Affairs Committee will be of particular use. Waltz is a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard, serving multiple deployments as an Army Green Beret officer, as well as years as a national security specialist.
To that end, veterans’ and national security issues are among his top policy priorities.
