Donald Trump’s convention manager Paul Manafort has been named chairman and chief strategist of the presumptive Republican nominee’s presidential campaign, according to multiple reports Thursday.
Manafort first joined the Trump campaign as a delegate wrangler in late March before the candidate promoted him to convention manager. Now, the longtime Washington insider will oversee the campaign’s expansion into several battleground states and the development of a general election strategy.
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will “continue overseeing day to day operations and will work with Manafort on political strategy and communications, among other things, through the general election,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks told ABC News.
Manafort’s newest role is likely related to the experience he brings to Trump’s unorthodox campaign. The veteran Republican strategist worked to get former President Gerald Ford nominated at the 1976 GOP convention, and later served as an adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
He has also spent weeks bolstering support for Trump within the halls of Congress, spending every Thursday morning in Washington meeting with Trump supporters and skeptics on Capitol Hill.
“There’s a growing number of people supporting us. We feel very comfortable that even more will be supporting us next trip,” Manafort told ABC News. “They all recognize now that we definitely can win, and they want to know what kind of issues we will be stressing, which we’ll be doing in the next month or two.”
The Trump campaign is already in the process of building out its operation to a handful of swing states, as well as traditionally blue states the billionaire believes he could flip.
“Up until three weeks ago, there were 102 or 103 employees, which is fewer than Ben Carson had in January,” senior campaign adviser Barry Bennett told the AP earlier this week.
“Today, that number is much bigger, and it’s growing every day,” he said.
