Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison chose a top deputy from the Iowa Attorney General's Office to co-lead his consumer protection section with Deputy AG James Canaday.
For the past 18 years, Jessica Whitney worked for former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat who lost his re-election bid last year after decades in office.
Ellison called Whitney a "nation-leading talent." She starts March 1 and will step into a position that had been vacant, becoming one of four deputies.
Consumer protection, the largest of four sections in Ellison's office, is leading the investigation into the proposed merger of Fairview Health Services and Sanford Health.
In a news release, Ellison said his consumer protection work has expanded into gun violence prevention, antitrust, charities litigation, landlord-tenant law and wage theft.
In Iowa, Whitney was the deputy attorney general for public policy, supervising antitrust litigation, tobacco regulation, civil rights, veterans' affairs and labor matters. Since 2015, she also served as the director of the office's consumer protection division.
Whitney said in a release she's honored to join the office "to protect Minnesotans from fraud, abuse, and unfair competition."
She started with the Iowa office in 2004. She has degrees from Grinnell College and the University of Michigan Law School.
