David Merritt, managing director for Luntz Global Partners, is moving to America's Health Insurance Plans in Washington to lead communications and advocacy planning.
Merritt led political, policy, healthcare and energy assignments at Luntz, advising executives, candidates and campaigns.
Earlier, he was an advisor to Newt Gingrich's 2012 presidential bid and served as CEO of Gingrich's healthcare policy and lobbying shop. He later was partner and managing director at Leavitt Partners, the firm of former Health and Human Services Secretary and Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt.
Merritt, who returns to AHIP after serving as a director in the early 2000s, is slated to take the executive VP for public affairs and strategic initiatives title at the trade association.
The principles of liberty, self-government and individual rights are often discussed as matters of history. Last week in Odesa, Ukraine, I was reminded they are also very much matters of the present. 
How risks and opportunities have evolved for communicators in the second Trump administration.
Too many executives view public affairs as a technical task. They think that if their policy is strong, their facts are correct, and their lawyers are ready, the outcome will naturally follow. That’s a dangerous misconception.
A majority of Americans (52 percent) say president Trump launched the invasion of Iran in part to distract voters from the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal. Forty percent disagree, according to Drop Site/Zeteo/Data for Progress survey conducted March 6-8.
