Mitch Kates is a veteran political operative and consultant, who has skillfully and tactfully overseen local, statewide, and national campaigns in the U.S. (and abroad) for the last eighteen years. Currently serving as a Senior Advisor to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Mitch’s background is one punctuated by hard-fought struggles supporting political iconoclasts. His deft guidance and management were behind the successful candidacies of the former prime ministers of Kosovo (Hashim Thaçi) and the Republic of Georgia (Bidzina Ivanishvili), as well as Justice David N. Wecht’s election to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on a message of judicial transparency. Although a beloved and avowed resident of Pittsburgh these days with his wife (their four kids are scattered around the country,) Mitch’s work touches all four corners of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.