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Correspondent
We’re going to be hearing a lot of the hardworking Midwesterner with the uncommon name in the next two years, as he tries to unify the membership, expand the outreach and organize the muddled finances of the Republican National Committee.
Priebus, the former RNC general counsel who won the chairmanship Friday after seven rounds of voting, unseated his former ally, Michael Steele. He was head of Steele’s 2009 bid to run the committee and a close adviser.
A Wisconsin native (hometown: Kenosha), the 38-year-old Priebus most recently served as chairman of the state Republican Party, which is still riding high after huge wins in the midterm elections. Wisconsin, a battleground that Barack Obama won in 2008, was the only state last year where the GOP gained a U.S. senator, a governor and the entire Legislature.
Not surprisingly, Priebus enjoyed strong support for his RNC campaign from Republicans in his home state, particularly new Gov. Scott Walker, who praised him for his leadership and his ability to connect with party moderates and the more conservative tea party activists.
“He is exactly what the national GOP needs: a skilled and proven leader who never forgot the roots of the party,” Walker said in a statement after Priebus announced his candidacy.
Priebus was student body president at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (and was no doubt devastated by the Badgers’ recent loss in the Rose Bowl) and went on to work in the state Legislature before pursuing a law degree at the University of Miami. He’s a partner at the Milwaukee law firm Michael Best & Friedrich, where he specializes in corporate litigation.
In 2004, Priebus lost a bid for a seat in the Wisconsin Senate, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Robert Wirch.
Priebus and his wife Sally have two children.
He will serve a two-year term and will be up for re-election in 2013.
AOL News
