CLEVELAND, Ohio – U.S. Senate hopeful Jane Timken announced Tuesday she’d hired two former top-level advisers to former President Donald Trump to aid her campaign.
Timken, the former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, brought on former 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and 2016 deputy campaign manager David Bossie, saying in a statement it showed enthusiasm for her campaign. Lewandowski and Bossie have both been at the center of controversies both during and after their time working for Trump.
“I have worked with both Corey and David over the years as we fought to deliver Ohio for President Trump twice,” Timken said in a statement. “They know what it’s like to be in the throes of a campaign, and I am grateful to have their support in the home stretch.”
Trump fired Lewandowski in 2016 before securing the nomination in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention.
Most recently, he headed Trump’s political action committee Save America before resigning amid sexual assault allegations by a high-profile Trump donor who accused Lewandowski of groping her and making sexually graphic comments.
Since the 2020 election, Bossie has been one of the point men in expelling members of the Republican Party who don’t show fealty to Trump, including those who challenged his unfounded claims of widespread election fraud. That included authoring an RNC resolution to censure Republican Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both of whom have pushed back on election conspiracy theories.
The final version of the resolution authored by Bossie included describing Trump supporters who rioted and overran the Capitol in a failed attempt to delay certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory as people engaged in “legitimate political discourse,” though whether Bossie authored that portion is unclear.
Lewandowski’s and Bossie’s hiring adds to the Timken campaign’s strategy of tapping into Trump’s orbit in recent weeks, first with the hiring of Kellyanne Conway, a Trump confidant who worked as his 2016 campaign manager in the general election, joining him as White House adviser after his victory. Conway previously worked for Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno’s campaign before Moreno dropped out of the race.
Aside from Timken’s hires, former Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien is involved in the Senate race as a senior adviser for Cleveland real estate banker Mike Gibbons.
Trump has not yet endorsed in the race, a coveted get for any of the Republican challengers, which include former Treasurer Josh Mandel, author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance, state Sen. Matt Dolan and Franklin County businessman Mark Pukita. Most of the candidates have gone out of their way to associate themselves as closely as possible to the former president, given his control over Republican Party politics.
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