We’ve found the perfect person to lead our White House coverage as we begin the Biden years: Sam Stein.

He’ll need little introduction to most of you, having made his mark at not one but two innovative digital startups that came of age along with POLITICO, while being a longtime MSNBC contributor and a general force of nature in Washington journalism. He radiates ideas the way uranium throws off gamma rays — the kind of editor you want on your team to puzzle through how to tackle a big story and spot the angles others are missing.

He has firsthand understanding of the Obama-Biden era and its team, which you may have noticed is getting a second act now. He also boasts encyclopedic knowledge of the divided politics of that era, which are likewise on track for a second act.

Sam joins us after three-and-a-half years as politics editor at The Daily Beast and 10 years prior to that as a White House correspondent and politics editor at HuffPost. Somewhere on the way, he also co- created his own terrific podcast, built around a series of interviews with candidates who ran for office and lost. He wanted to call it "Losers," a person familiar with the deliberations informed us, but worried about how the name would affect his bookings. So he settled on “Candidate Confessional.”

Sam has racked up accolades while producing many a scoop that made his competitors envious: His work on the effects of sequestration was recognized by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, for instance. He also was the first reporter from an online news outlet to ask the president a question at a White House press conference. (Video of that moment includes the extremely rare footage of a journalist nearly eating a microphone because of intense anxiety, the person familiar told POLITICO.)

Prior to entering journalism, Sam went to school at Dartmouth College and served as press secretary for the Center for Public Integrity. After that, he attended Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Sam's main love used to be his dog, a beagle named Bennet. But then Sam had kids (two young boys) and—as these things go—no longer pays all that much attention to Bennet. Poor Bennet.

Sam starts Jan. 4 and will report to Blake. More announcements about the White House team coming soon, but in the meantime please give the new guy a warm POLITICO welcome -- and join us in thanking Sudeep and Cory for skillfully steering the ship these past few years.

Blake

Carrie