US President Donald Trump has picked one of his political strategists as campaign manager for his 2020 re-election campaign.
The Trump Organization hired Brad Parscale, 42, in 2011 as a digital media guru.
He was asked in 2015 to create a website for Mr Trump’s exploratory White House bid and a year later became the campaign’s digital director.
The president’s son, Eric Trump, confirmed the appointment.
He said in a press release on Tuesday: “Brad is an amazing talent and was pivotal to our success in 2016.
“He has our family’s complete trust and is the perfect person to be at the helm of the campaign.”
The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, said in a statement: “Brad was essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign was run.
“His leadership and expertise will help build a best-in-class campaign.”
The Republican president filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission shortly after his inauguration last year to form a committee for a re-election bid.
Mr Trump’s campaign fundraising has been ongoing, raising $22m (£16m) by the end of 2017.
It is little surprise that an incumbent US president would run for a second term, as White House press secretary Sarah Sanders made clear last year.
“Of course he’s running for re-election,” she said in June 2017 during a press briefing.
Mr Parscale, of San Antonio, Texas, was interviewed behind closed doors last year by the House Intelligence Committee inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the US election.
He said he had told lawmakers he had no knowledge of the alleged Kremlin plot to influence the campaign in favour of Mr Trump.
Mr Parscale told a CBS 60 Minutes programme last year that Mr Trump had rebuked him during the election, because the candidate was sceptical about ad spending.
He said Mr Trump shouted at him: “I don’t believe in this mumbo-jumbo digital stuff.
“I was crushed actually. It was the first time he had ever, just, I hadn’t even seen him yell at anyone, let alone me.”
The digital guru’s firm, Giles-Parscale, billed the Trump campaign $94m for its work on the election, reports US media.
Mr Parscale told 60 Minutes he projected Mr Trump’s eventual path to victory in the US Midwest.
“I took every nickel and dime I could out of anywhere else,” he said.
“And I moved it to Michigan and Wisconsin. And I started buying advertising, digital, TV.”
Mr Parscale hired the British data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica to work for the Trump campaign.
On Tuesday, the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica over its role in the US election and Brexit.
The analysis firm – which claims to have up to 5,000 data points on every adult in the US – is credited by some with helping Mr Trump win the presidency.
Source: BBC