Jason Noble named Register's chief political reporter

The Des Moines Register today named Jason Noble, an Iowa government and politics reporter since 2011, to the position of chief political reporter.

Noble replaces Jennifer Jacobs, who left the Register in late March to join Bloomberg Politics.

At the Register, Noble has covered two Iowa caucus campaign cycles — including embedded assignments with the Michele Bachmann campaign in 2012 and the Jeb Bush campaign in 2016 — and spent three years in the state Capitol reporting on the Iowa House of Representatives.

“Jason is a well-respected, deeply sourced journalist who brings experience and expertise to this role,” Register executive editor Amalie Nash said. “We conducted a national search for this position, and Jason was a clear standout. We know he will continue the strong tradition of Register political reporters who are nationally known for their reporting from the first-in-the-nation caucus state."

Noble most recently conducted political fact checks, explainers and investigations as the Register’s Reality Check reporter. Last year, he produced the acclaimed Three Tickets 10-episode podcast on caucuses history and culture.

Noble coined the phrase “Full Grassley,” which describes the political feat of visiting all 99 Iowa counties in a single calendar year or campaign cycle. He has completed his own Full Grassley, reporting from every county in the state.

Noble began his career at the Kansas City Star and covered four sessions of the Missouri legislature as the Jefferson City correspondent.

Noble, 32, is a lifelong Midwesterner, born in Ohio and raised in Kansas. He graduated from Iowa State University in 2006 with a degree in journalism and earned a master’s of public affairs from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2012.