Corey Lewandowski and a team of allied political operatives can’t seem to get their story straight on a new super PAC that appears to portend his imminent run for a New Hampshire U.S. Senate seat.
President Trump’s former campaign manager isn’t yet an actual candidate for federal office, so he wasn’t violating any laws when, during a break in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, he tweeted his endorsement of the new group, Stand With Corey.
“New website just launched to help a potential senate run,” he wrote. “Sign up now!” The website’s email signup function wasn’t yet active, so visitors couldn’t do so at the time he tweeted, but the feature has since been added, alongside a quote from Trump endorsing Lewandowski’s yet-to-be-announced candidacy.
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Stand With Corey is the project of three high-profile Republican operatives, according to New Hampshire political reporter John DiStaso: Michael Biundo, who managed Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign and now runs the consulting firm RightVoter; John Brabender, a Santorum colleague who runs the firm Brabender Cox; and Marty Obst, a former senior political aide to Vice President Mike Pence.
The people actually running the PAC appear to have a different view of its purpose than Lewandowski does.
“There’s clearly a grassroots movement dedicated to recruiting Corey Lewandowski for the Senate, and we believe that it’s time to draft Corey into this race and show that the voters of New Hampshire are behind him,” Biundo told DiStaso.
Putting aside whether there is anything “grassroots” about the group, Biundo’s word choices—“recruiting” and “draft”—were notably different from those used by Lewandowski, who described the super PAC as an effort to “help” his political prospects.
That’s notable for two reasons. First, unlike the consultant-speak of his third-party supporters, Lewandowski’s language suggests his run is a foregone conclusion. And second, it gives lie to the group’s supposed independence. It’s not just a crew of supporters who want to see him jump into the races. It’s clear Lewandowski has already decided to do so, and that he’s fully briefed on these supposedly “independent” efforts to support him.
