Republican operative Corbin Casteel has reportedly left Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, just three months after he was named state director of the GOP front-runner’s Texas operation.
Casteel, a former Republican National Committee staffer and longtime political consultant, was hired to run Trump’s ground campaign in the Lone Star State in October despite previously describing the billionaire’s White House bid “a joke.”
“I don’t know of anyone in the party who looks at him like a fellow Republican,” Casteel said of Trump in an August interview with the San Antonio Express-News. “I believe it’s a universal view that Donald Trump is a joke.”
It is unclear whether Casteel resigned from the campaign or was let go. Neither he nor Trump’s spokeswoman returned the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
Casteel’s last Twitter post related to the billionaire’s campaign was on Dec. 7. At the time, he retweeted a local NBC News reporter who’d interviewed him about Trump’s strategy.
Trump is currently tied with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, at 27 percent each, in Cruz’s home state, according to the latest University of Texas-Texas Tribune poll. Texas is one of several states participating in the Super Tuesday presidential primaries on March 1.
