Former Florida governor Jeb Bush has secured the backing of former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore in his race for the Republican nomination, according to a statement provided to the Washington Post by Bush’s campaign.
“I am honored to join Gov. Bush’s leadership team in Virginia. Gov Bush is the reform candidate that the country needs at this point in our history,” Kilgore announced in the statement reported by the Washington Post. “His strong record of positive reforms in Florida gives certainty to the leadership he will provide as our President. His positive message is one that will resonate with Virginians.”
Kilgore, a conservative who overwhelmingly won his 2001 bid to become Virginia’s Attorney General, had previously served as Walker’s finance chairman prior to Walker’s Monday departure from the presidential race.
The remaining contenders are competing to secure state-level leaders, staff, and donors in the aftermath of the fallout from Walker’s withdrawal. Prior to losing his momentum amid Donald Trump’s meteoric rise in polls and a realignment of the race’s tone, Walker had assembled an impressive leadership team in Virginia, which, in addition to Kilgore, counted among its ranks Senator Mark Obenshain, Delegates David Ramadan and Margaret Ransone, as well as Chris Leavitt, former campaign manager for Ed Gillespie and Mark Obenshain in their runs for US Senate and Attorney General in 2014 and 2013, respectively.
In his bid for the Republican nomination, Bush has made Virginia a priority on the campaign trail. This Thursday, the former Governor will be headlining a Bristol fundraiser aiding Virginia’s Republican Senate caucus in its efforts to maintain Republican leadership of the chamber for the remainder of Governor McAuliffe’s term.
Thursday’s fundraiser isn’t the first time Bush has stepped up to help a cash-strapped party as it campaigns to retain control of Virginia’s Senate and lay the groundwork for successful victory efforts in 2016. Back in March, Bush donated $10,000 to the state party just one month after his February visit to Richmond for another Republican fundraising event.
The endorsement and support of well-known conservative Jerry Kilgore provides a definite boost to Bush’s campaign in Virginia as he struggles to regain momentum lost to the rise of the outsiders. If Bush is to win, he’ll need to rely on allies such as Kilgore, as well as previously-tapped Virginia leaders Eric Cantor, James Hager, and Kay Cole James, if he is to successfully communicate his record as Florida’s governor in an increasingly noisy Trump-dominated media environment which has already suffocated the campaigns of two other governors and starved a half-dozen other contenders of much-needed political oxygen.
