WASHINGTON — The Tim Pawlenty presidential campaign released a fundraising email and video Thursday featuring Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the most recent high profile hire for the Tim Pawlenty campaign.

Huckabee Sanders helped guide her father, Mike Huckabee, to a victory in the Iowa caucuses in 2008. She’s heading up Pawlenty’s grassroots efforts in Iowa ahead of the Ames Straw Poll.

“I’m excited and thrilled to be back in Iowa,” Huckabee Sanders said in her video. “It holds a special place in my heart and it holds a special place in the country. It’s one of the few places that has the opportunity to vet out the presidential candidates on a one-on-one level.

“The more that people hear Pawlenty’s message, the more you’re going t see people coalesce around the governor.”

The campaign’s fundraising email, titled “30 for 30,” encourages supporters to donate $30 to the campaign now that there are only 30 days before the critical Ames Straw Poll.

Pawlenty will embark on an 18-city 687-mile RV tour of Iowa next week. It’s a retail politics approach very similar to the one employed by Huckabee four years ago.