The top strategist for the Republican National Committee will take an expanded role with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, a sign of greater unity within Republican ranks with less than three months to go before Election Day.
Sean Spicer, the RNC’s chief strategist and communications director, will “be spending more time” with the Trump campaign, newly installed campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We’re working very closely with the RNC,” Conway said.
The enhanced role for Spicer marks the latest in a series of campaign changes for the billionaire real estate developer-turned-politician. Paul Manafort, the campaign’s chairman, resigned on Friday, days after Trump promoted Conway to manager from her role as senior adviser, and named veteran conservative operative Stephen Bannon as chief executive.
Other personnel announcements are likely to come as early as Monday as the Trump campaign, among other things, looks to beef up its ground game, little more than a month before early voting starts in some states ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
“What we’re trying to do this week is get an assessment of where we really are, state by state,” Conway said. “And I’ll be talking to all of our state directors, our field staff, our data operation, find out where we are and what they think we need.”
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said Trump is “on a great pathway to recalibrating the campaign” after falling behind in the polls to Democrat Hillary Clinton. A RealClearPolitics average of recent surveys shows Clinton up by 5.3 percentage points.
“Donald Trump has been disciplined and mature and I think he’s going to get this thing back on track,” Priebus said on ABC.
(c) 2016, Bloomberg · Chris Strohm
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