Trump campaign taps Jeb Bush alum for major New Hampshire role
Ryan King
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Former President Donald Trump is turning to a veteran of his bitter 2016 rival Jeb Bush as his campaign seeks to gain a stronger foothold in New Hampshire.
Trevor Naglieri, who worked as a field coordinator for Bush and then as a national field director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2016, will assume the post of state director for the Trump campaign’s New Hampshire operations, Politico reported.
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Naglieri has done occasional work for Republican consulting firm Axiom Strategies, the head of which, Jeff Roe, has gone all in for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Roe joined the Never Back Down political action committee, which backs the Florida governor in the 2024 contest.
Two months ago, Trump’s campaign also hired former Granite State Republican Chairman Steve Stepanek to serve as a senior adviser to its New Hampshire operations, per the outlet.
A cadre of top 2024 Republicans have descended on New Hampshire in recent weeks seeking to make inroads in the first in the nation Republican presidential primary state. Iowa is technically the leadoff state on the Republican side, but it has a caucus rather than a traditional primary.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley held a town hall in New Hampshire on Monday, as did former New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie, who is testing the political waters and actively considering a presidential run.
Bush quickly emerged as one of Trump’s top political punching bags in the 2016 cycle. Trump relished in mocking Bush as “Low Energy Jeb” as he bulldozed his way through a crowded field of 16 GOP candidates. Recently, Trumpworld has sought to lump Bush in with DeSantis as it seeks to paint his top 2024 GOP foe as a creature of the establishment.
Recently, Bush heaped praise on DeSantis’s performance as governor but stopped short of endorsing him.
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DeSantis is poised to head to the Granite State in April amid his ongoing book tour, which appears to be doubling as a stealth campaign stint. A recent Public Opinion Strategies poll found Trump and DeSantis dead even at 39% in New Hampshire. Notably, when additional GOP contenders are added to the mix, Trump jumps to the lead by 12 percentage points.
Trump currently retains a toehold on the 2024 GOP primary nationally, with DeSantis in second place among the hypothetical contenders, per the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.