Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus will serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Trump’s transition organization announced on Sunday afternoon.
The announcement marks the first officially-named member of Trump’s staff once he is sworn in early next year, after constitutional officer and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Trump praised Priebus in his victory speech last week, saying that “Reince is really a star. And he is the hardest-working guy.” He’s also very effective.
Priebus, 44, is a lawyer who served as general counsel of the RNC under the troubled tenure of previous chairman Michael Steele. After taking over in 2011, he steered it out of both gaffe prone controversies and debt and worked to build up a better network to help Republicans accross the country get elected. Much of Trump’s “ground game” which produced an upset victory Tuesday came courtesy not of the Trump campaign but the RNC’s own organizing muscle.
The RNC head was born in New Jersey and moved to Green Bay with the family when he was a boy. Priebus came up through the Wisconsin Republican Party. He is known to be close to fellow Cheesehead State politician House Speaker Paul Ryan and has clashed at times with Donald Trump. Nevertheless, Priebus made good on his promise to back the eventual GOP nominee “100 percent” and Trump has awarded that effort with one of the most important posts in DC.
Other names floated for the chief of staff job included Brietbart CEO Stephen Bannon, who will serve as senior counselor to the president, according to Sunday’s announcement.
“I am thrilled to have my very successful team continue with me in leading our country,” Trump said in a statement. “Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory. Now I will have them both with me in the White House as we work to make America great again.”
Analysts widely speculated that Priebus was the choice of mainstream Republicans, while selecting Bannon as chief of staff would have been a nod to a political outsider known to not play well with others. Under him, Breitbart had declared political open war on Speaker Ryan, who likely breathed the longest sigh of relief on Sunday afternoon.
