WASHINGTON--Obama White House Capitol Hill team veteran Jonathan Samuels, an Evanston native, was promoted to Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs and House Liaison in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.

The promotion was announced by Rob Nabors, Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House. The White House legislative affairs office lobbies Congress on behalf of the president -- defending and advancing his agenda. Samuels will manage the House side of the operation. He steps up as the White House has a new challenge of working with a Republican controlled House.

Samuels joined the White House lobby shop at the start of the administration, as Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs.

Samuels is a former deputy chief of staff to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). After Schakowsky, Samuels moved over to the office of then House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) He worked in the 2008 Obama presidential campaign as the southern regional director and was on the transition team dealing with congressional affairs.