Trump Ally Corey Lewandowski Strongly 'Looking At' Senate Run in New Hampshire
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is giving serious thought to a possible 2020 Senate run in New Hampshire, Fox News reported.
According to the outlet, Lewandowski said Thursday that he is looking “very hard” at his prospects for unseating two-term Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Politico confirmed the report, saying Lewandowski had told the outlet he was “seriously considering it” in a text message.
A native of the Northeast, born and raised just south of the New Hampshire border in Lowell, Massachusetts, Lewandowski has strong ties to the region.
Many have suggested that it was these strong ties to the Northeastern culture and electorate that aided him in delivering then-candidate Donald Trump a hard-fought victory in the Granite State’s February 2016 Republican primary.
After his departure from the campaign little more than four months later, Trump fell to Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a rail-thin margin in New Hampshire in the general election.
But Lewandowski said he believes that placing himself down-ballot from Trump in 2020 might create a “strong, unified” Republican energy in the state that would strongly benefit the president’s re-election efforts.
“New Hampshire is a state he lost by 2,700 votes, but having a strong, unified ticket in the state will help him be successful in 2020,” Lewandowski told Fox News.
The former Trump campaign manager has struggled in previous election efforts, falling in 1994 when he ran for state representative in Massachusetts while still in college, and again in 2012 when he ran for town treasurer in Windham, New Hampshire.
Shaheen’s seat, however, is deemed by Republicans to be a strong contender for flipping as the GOP seeks to protect a hotly contested Senate majority in the coming election cycle.
The senator struggled to be re-elected in 2014, eking out a 3 percent margin of victory over former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in a year that saw Republicans retaking the Senate. But, according to polling aggregated by Five Thirty Eight, she is among the most favorable senators up for re-election, with a rating of plus-21.
Lewandowski also would face strong competition in the primary from former state Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien, who recently announced a bid for the Republican nomination.
Despite rumors of possible infighting resulting in his firing from the Trump campaign, Lewandowski and members of the Trump family maintain that his 2016 departure was “amicable” and that a relationship remains.
In a 2017 book titled “Let Trump Be Trump,” Lewandowski and former deputy Trump campaign manager David Bossie boasted of the president’s talent for mass communications and his willingness to fight for America first — seeking to explain that despite Trump’s controversial and aggressive behavior, even toward staff, he inspires confidence as a leader.
A Lewandowski run would likely be centered around loyalty to Trump and his 2020 platform and see Lewandowski placing a lot of faith in the state’s support of the current administration.
Regardless, he thinks the risk may be worth it, saying, “The president needs a strong supporter of his on the ticket in New Hampshire.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
