DeSantis hires Trump acolyte for campaign
Susie Wiles also aided Gov. Scott; most polls show Democrat Gillum up.
Susie Wiles helped Rick Scott rise from political unknown to governor of Florida in 2010 and was brought in by Donald Trump to steer his campaign in the crucial Sunshine State during the final months of the 2016 presidential race.
Now, with Democrat
Andrew Gillum leading several polls for Florida governor and some Republicans fretting about the direction of the race, GOP nominee Ron DeSantis has hired
Wiles to try to turn things around in the final six weeks of the nationally watched contest.
DeSantis announced Wednesday that he had tapped Wiles to “lead our campaign efforts.” She will have
the title of campaign chairwoman while Brad Herold remains as campaign manager. Ponte Vedra Beach resident Wiles, 61, will temporarily step aside from her duties as managing partner of Ballard Partners, the powerhouse lobbying firm headed by longtime Republican money-raiser and Trump confidant Brian Ballard of Tallahassee.
It’s not the first time a Republican has turned to Wiles for late help in a high-profile race.
Wiles and state Rep. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, signed on in late 2015 as co-chairs of Trump’s presidential campaign in Florida, but didn’t handle the day-to-day decision-making as Trump won the state’s primary and the GOP nomination. As concerns grew in the summer of 2016 about his ability to win the state’s 29 electoral votes, Trump named Wiles his chief Florida strategist shortly after Labor Day. Trump ended up winning Florida by 1.2 percentage points over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In 2010, Scott was a businessman with no political experience who launched a self-financed GOP campaign for governor against the slamdunk favorite of the party establishment, Attorney General Bill McCollum. With Wiles managing his campaign, Scott upset McCollum in the Republican primary and went on to win the general election over Democrat Alex Sink.
Wiles is a daughter of the late broadcasting legend and former NFL player Pat Summerall. Her hiring by DeSantis was applauded by Republicans who have called their nominee’s campaign flat-footed in making the switch from a primary dominated by Fox News appearances and embraces of Trump to a general election in America’s largest swing state.
“From the grassroots point of view it was slow to get off the ground, but that’ll speed up now . ... With the addition of Susie Wiles, that’ll bring in the Trump grassroots organization and they’ll be off and running,” said Florida Republican National Committeeman Peter Feaman, an attorney from Boynton Beach.
DeSantis, a three-term congressman from the Jacksonville area, overtook Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in the Republican primary after Trump tweeted his “full endorsement” in late June and appeared with him at a rally in Tampa on July 31.
But since winning the Aug. 28 primary by nearly 20 points, DeSantis has stumbled at times. His use of the phrase “monkey this up” in a Fox interview the morning after the primary put him on the defensive as Democrats accused him of using a racially charged term to describe his black opponent. DeSantis denied any racial intent behind the term.
DeSantis also has had to distance himself from a donor who called former President Barack Obama a racial slur on Twitter and from members of a far-right group called the Proud Boys, who showed up at a DeSantis event in Sarasota.
DeSantis and many Republicans have dismissed those controversies as media-generated chatter. Of more concern to some in the GOP has been the uncertain messaging and direction in the first month of the general election campaign.
Democrats, hoping to capitalize on anti-Trump sentiment in the midterm elections, ripped DeSantis for turning to a Trump-connected figure for campaign help.
“No matter how many Trump world fixers he hires, Ron DeSantis can’t change one basic fact: his record is toxic. Floridians don’t want a governor whose only accomplishment in Congress is defending Donald Trump on Fox and voting to take away health care. Trump can’t save you, Ron,” Florida Democratic Party spokesman Kevin Donohoe said.