The Florida political consultant has helped other high profile members of the Florida GOP, notably Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott.
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On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump announced that campaign senior advisor Susie Wiles will be his White House chief of staff.
In a statement obtained by USA TODAY, Trump was thankful to Wiles following his win over Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day.
“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” Trump said in the statement. “Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”
Serving as Trump’s de facto campaign manager, Wiles will make history by becoming the first woman to hold the title of White House chief of staff.
The 66-year-old Florida political consultant is a somewhat mysterious figure, rarely seen front and center on the campaign trail or heard from in public.
“She hates the limelight,” John Delaney said earlier this year to USA TODAY. Delaney is a longtime friend and employed Wiles when he was the Republican mayor of Jacksonville, Florida.
Ahead of her high-profile position in Trump’s administration, here’s what to know about Wiles.
Who is Susie Wiles?
Wiles has been described as a big reason for Trump’s political comeback to the White House. In 2018, she helped another Republican win when she steered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to his first term in 2018.
With Wiles on board for the campaign’s final month, DeSantis narrowly eked out the closest victory of any governor in Florida history.
DeSantis pressured Trump to fire Wiles from his 2020 campaign in Florida, which he did. This came after DeSantis blamed Wiles of leaking a now controversial fundraising memo, which detailed charging lobbyists in order to play golf, among other things, with the governor.
A famous upbringing and experience in politics
Wiles is the daughter of longtime football broadcaster Pat Summerall, who worked alongside football royalty like John Madden.
“Think about this: Her dad sat between John Madden and Howard Cosell, two of the biggest personalities, pains in the a–, right?” a Trump campaign official said to USA TODAY earlier this year. “Really hard thing, and he was the calming center. And it’s genetic. She has that.”
Her early career in politics included working for New York Rep. Jack Kemp and both in the Reagan campaign and administration. She made a name for herself in Florida in 1995, helping Delaney become the first Republican mayor of Jacksonville since the Reconstruction era.
“She’s a Republican, but she’s not uber-, uber-conservative at all,” Delaney said in an interview with USA TODAY earlier this year. “Really you’d be struck more by moderate than anything else. … She’d be left on the environment, left on gay rights.”
Wiles aided in multiple Florida Republican campaigns
Trump and DeSantis are not the only two high-profile Florida Republicans Wiles has been successful in helping. In 2010, Wiles aided Sen. Rick Scott’s campaign, who won re-election on Tuesday.
In that election, Scott was an unknown entity in Florida politics, but with Wiles’s help, he was able to tap into the tea party wave of that year’s midterm elections. Riding a wave of right-wing populism, he was able to defeat his GOP opponent in the primaries and narrowly win the general election.
“Most Republicans were told if they worked on my campaign in the primary they would never work in Republican politics, so I’ll forever be grateful somebody with Susie’s reputation came to work for me,” said Scott, adding Wiles is “really smart, she’s a hard worker, she’s a team player, I think she gives really good advice.”
Contributing: David Jackson and Zac Anderson, USA TODAY
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.