Longtime Florida political operative Brian Hughes, who most recently worked for Jacksonville’s Republican mayor, has been hired by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to head its effort in the Sunshine State.
In a text message, Hughes verified the report but directed any inquiry to the Trump team. The Trump campaign did not provide a statement right away. Florida Politics was the first to break the story.
Hughes’s decision to join Trump’s campaign is the latest example of a person with ties to rival 2024 GOP presidential candidate, Governor Ron DeSantis, being hired by the former president’s operation. Hughes was one of the political strategists who assisted DeSantis during his first run for Congress in 2012, but the two have not collaborated since.
Susie Wiles, one of Trump’s closest advisors, formerly worked for DeSantis. After working on Trump’s 2016 Florida campaign and leading Rick Scott to his first successful run for governor, DeSantis hired Wiles in 2018.
DeSantis’s administration was stabilised under Wiles’s leadership, and he narrowly defeated Gillum’s Democratic Party in 2018. However, Wiles and DeSantis had a public falling out in 2019 after she was driven to leave Ballard Partners, one of the state’s finest lobbying firms, and was removed from Trump’s 2020 campaign at the governor’s suggestion. However, Trump reconciled with Wiles a few months before his reelection campaign, angering DeSantis in the process.
The Republican primary in Florida will be held on March 19, which is after the early states and Super Tuesday. However, the victor of this primary will receive 100% of the vote, which could prove to be the deciding factor in whether or not they gain the nomination.
For the past eight years, Hughes has served as chief administrative officer for the city of Jacksonville under Mayor Lenny Curry, a former chair of the Republican Party in Florida.
Term limits forced Curry out of office. In May, Democrat Donna Deegan defeated the Republican candidate endorsed by DeSantis to win the seat. The Republicans had hoped to keep the seat.
In contrast, DeSantis did not appear at any events with Republican Daniel Davis in the last days of the campaign, which angered numerous Jacksonville Republicans.