Former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore is the latest Scott Walker surrogate to depart the Wisconsin governor’s now-dissolved presidential campaign to join another Republican presidential hopeful.
Kilgore, who served as finance chairman of Walker’s Virginia operation, announced Tuesday that he will join Jeb Bush’s campaign alongside other Walker backers who have since endorsed the former Florida governor.
“I am honored to join Gov. Bush’s leadership team in Virginia,” Kilgore said in a statement released by the Bush camp. “His strong record of positive reforms in Florida gives certainty to the leadership he will provide as our President.”
The former attorney general, who lost an election as the Republican nominee for governor of Virginia in 2005, described Bush as the “reform candidate” America needs with a campaign message that will “resonate with Virginians.”
According to the most recent survey of Virginia Republicans by Public Policy Polling, Bush leads the rest of the GOP field with 18 percent support in the battleground state. Bush maintained his No. 6 spot in this week’s Washington Examiner presidential power rankings, unchanged from where he stood a week ago before the second Republican presidential debate.
Kilgore joins two other notable Republicans who shifted their support from Walker to Bush in the 24 hours following Walker’s exit speech.
Bush’s campaign announced Monday that former Wisconsin GOP Chairman Richard Graber had moved to endorse the Florida Republican who was also spotted later that evening with Terry Baxter, an Iowa state senator who’d previously campaigned for Walker.
Other GOP candidates who’ve benefitted from Walker’s departure include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sens. Marco Rubio, Fla., and Ted Cruz, Texas. Cruz and Christie picked up county co-chairs who had campaigned for Walker in Iowa, while Rubio snagged Walker’s New Hampshire state co-chair minutes after news broke of the Wisconsin governor’s withdrawal.
