GOP White House candidates aggressively chase former Romney aides

GOP White House candidates aggressively chase former Romney aides

Spencer Zwick, perhaps the most sought-after prospect, has already spoken to five different Republican candidates, and expects to join one of them at one point.

The push for the 2016 White House GOP nomination is on, and part of that competition involves signing the best staffers out there — including those left behind by the short-lived Mitt Romney campaign.

The brief third try for the White House by Romney was over just a few weeks after it started despite being one of the most popular potential candidates out there among Republicans, leaving behind Spencer Zwick, who will have plenty of campaign suitors going forward, according to an Associated Press report.

The Boston-based venture capitalist helped raise a half a billion dollars for Romney’s campaign in 2012, which successfully won the 2012 GOP nomination but ultimately ended in a second term for President Barack Obama. Zwick said he was deeply disappointed by Romney’s decision and is thus not in any major rush to join a new campaign. But once he does, along with another group of Romney aides, they will be courted quite aggressively by what is already a crowded field of Republican candidates for president.

Zwick himself has spoken with no fewer than five Republican presidential prospects, either in person or over the phone, in just a wee ever since Romney turned down a third bid for the White House.

He told the AP that there were some “interesting candidates out there,” and that at some point he expects to be working with one of them.

Not surprisingly, one of those candidates was former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, considered one of the frontrunners for the GOP bid. He’s also heard from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — all representing the cream of the crop for Republicans as they seek to take back the White House.

But he’s not the only one to be heavily courted by other campaigns since Romney pulled out. Lanhee Chen, who was Romney’s chief policy adviser in 2012. has heard from eight prospective campaigns, and he will meet with them in the coming weeks. Like Zwick, he expects he will be working for one of them at one point, he’s just not sure for whom and in what capacity.

Other aides include Eric Fehrnstrom and Beth Myers, who were both part of Romney’s inner circle. Political director Rich Beeson and deputy campaign manager Katie Packer Gage will also be sought, as will a number of others. Most likely, they will have all made their decisions within a matter of weeks as the campaign heats up.

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