Although Donald Trump has frequently said he doesn’t need a pollster because he relies on publicly available media polls, his campaign has reportedly hired a veteran pollster.
Politico reports that Trump has hired Tony Fabrizio, who has experience working on multiple presidential campaigns: Bob Dole’s, Sen. [crscore]Rand Paul[/crscore]’s, Pat Buchanan’s, and Rick Perry’s. Fabrizio has also helped political outsiders Matt Bevin and Rick Scott win in Kentucky and Florida, respectively.
“Tony is flat-out one of the smartest dudes I know. He proved it with Rick Scott — much to my personal detriment, he knows how to take a deeply flawed candidate and sell them to the voters,” former Obama campaign adviser Steve Schale told Politico. “If I was a Republican running for President or dogcatcher, I’d want him in my corner,” Schale added.
Throughout the campaign Trump has criticized the usage of pollsters. “I don’t have pollsters. I don’t want to waste money on pollsters,” Trump told NBC’s Chuck Todd last August. “You know, we have enough of that in Washington with pollsters telling everybody what to say and everybody being controlled by the special interests, and the lobbyists, et cetera, and the donors.”
Fabrizio is connected to Trump confidant Roger Stone and top Trump adviser Paul Manafort. He will continue to work on Florida Rep. [crscore]Ron DeSantis[/crscore]’s Senate campaign while working on the Trump campaign, according to Politico.