- February 24, 2015 -
‘Major Coup’: Donald Trump Picks Up to Iowa Grassroots Operative for Potential 2016 Campaign
Deace told Breitbart News on Tuesday evening that Trump, the real estate magnate and reality television star who’s flirted with running for president before, took one of the biggest steps toward launching a White House bid any potential candidate could take by hiring Chuck Laudner, someone considered to be the most respected grassroots operative in Iowa GOP politics.
“Chuck is by far the best conservative organizer in Iowa and there is not a close second,” Deace said in a phone interview on Tuesday evening. “I’ve had multiple campaigns ask me for my recommendations on staffing and I’ve given Laudner’s name at or near the top to every campaign that has asked.
“Trump signing Laudner–who had other options–that would be an instant signal that he is serious. That this is not some flight of fancy where he’s going to yank everybody’s chain and then back out—look like he was getting serious then not run like what happened four years ago.”
Laudner led former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s 2012 campaign in Iowa–a campaign where Santorum beat eventual GOP nominee Mitt Romney–and drove him around in the “Chuck Truck,” a pickup truck in which Santorum hit all of Iowa’s 99 counties.
