JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — About nine years ago, Republican politics were a little more subdued in Suzie Wiles’ hometown of Jacksonville than they are today.
With Donald Trump still being a shock to many people, especially the general public, there was considerable confusion as to why Wiles, who is known as a level-headed moderate and widely respected by those who do not embrace a populist figure like Trump, would be working for Trump’s campaign and helping run his election campaign in Florida.
Over a quiet and not too expensive lunch not far from City Hall, I asked her the obvious question on many people’s minds: “Why Trump?”
She explained with calm and clarity not only why he was the right candidate, but also why he would be president.
Conventional wisdom said she was wrong, but as is so often the case, that conventional wisdom was outdated rubbish.
She campaigned methodically, attending a rally in Jacksonville that was largely ignored by the city’s Republican elite, who favor Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, two men she respectably calls “gradualists.”
And voters proved her right, as they have done before.
That shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone who saw the work she did for then-candidate Rick Scott in 2010.
Like Trump, Scott is an independent, wealthy political outsider who overcame primary opposition with any meaningful backing and won, in part because she matched Trump’s now-famous work ethic on the strategic front.
History repeated itself in 2016, and Wiles assumed an even more prominent role, running the campaign’s “battlefield communications” by the end of August and then taking sole command of the Florida operation in the closing stages — an effort that not only staved off self-destructive mistakes and won the state that cycle, but also laid the groundwork for Republican victories since.
“Susie’s strengths are organizational skills; she’s great at getting lots of people to volunteer. She’s going to do a great job,” Scott, now a senator, told me about her assuming the leadership role.
And he was right.
In September 2018, Wiles was tasked with saving another struggling candidate, Ron DeSantis, who was looking un-Future in the polls and was facing off against Andrew Gillum, a Tallahassee Democrat who was once considered the national front-runner.
DeSantis won his primary against Adam Putnam with Trump’s endorsement, but polls showed the Republican’s approval rating dropped by as much as nine points in the weeks after the August primary.
Again, Wiles worked her magic. Unlike Trump, DeSantis did not value her efforts in the same way, and she was soon ousted from the governor’s circle for unfounded reasons and discarded like so many of his predecessors.
Of course, DeSantis ended up regretting it.
The price was paid when, after a laughable reelection campaign against an emaciated Charlie Crist, Trump launched a book tour and presidential campaign, an effort to wipe out the candidates and a bet that he would be unable to run for legal or health reasons.
DeFuture quickly became DePatsy, and Wiles helped define his former client on Trump’s behalf.
DeSantis World had no countermeasures, and his campaign spent roughly $150 million after failing to win a single county in Iowa and ultimately gambling it all to no avail.
While the 2024 vote will likely pit Trump against Joe Biden in a rematch, the situation on the ground will mirror his 2016 battle with Hillary Clinton.
While much of the media is still defending Biden, just like in 2020, President Trump doesn’t have to deal with a pandemic amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations in every major city.
And people seem to be taking a longer view of the president’s overall term, remembering a time when the dollar could buy far more than it can at the end of his term, and a relatively stable foreign policy that is lacking today, with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Chinese military assertiveness in the Pacific, and Russian provocations off the coast of Florida.
Susie Wiles is leading for the first time in years, Trump’s fundraising is soaring, and he’s building a new and unlikely coalition.
Underestimate him and his top brass and you do so at your peril.
