Trump’s campaign manager helping Caitlin Jenner in bid for California governor

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale is reportedly helping Caitlin Jenner “connect with the best talent in the country” as she tilts for the role of governor of California.

Mr Parscale, who has been friends with the Olympic athlete and Keeping up with the Kardashians star since 2017, is said to be throwing his weight behind Ms Jenner’s “very serious” run for the gubernatorial role in the state.

Mr Parscale has before this only helped one another politician — former President Trump, whose campaign he joined in 2016. He was later sacked during Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign after he failed to bring in large crowds during events and amid dropping poll numbers.

Meanwhile, sources close to Ms Jenner told the media that “she is very very serious” about running for the governor’s office as a Republican.

Ms Jenner’s bid for office comes in the wake of criticism over incumbent governor Gavin Newman’s efforts to handle the Covid crisis in the state. She is the second LGBTQ+ Republican to consider a run for the office if Mr Newsom is recalled, LGBTQ Nation reported, after Richard Grenell.

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It was previously reported that Ms Jenner was consulting with a few political consultants just to test the waters and gauge how well she could do. Axios had earlier said that she was getting help from one of the organisers of Mr Trump’s MAGA rallies, Caroline Wray. The two initially met via the American Unity Fund, a nonprofit working on LGBTQ+ rights issues.

Since his ouster from the Trump campaign, Mr Parscale has been working on developing Campaign Nucleus, a platform for the management of political campaigns. Its website also claims that it is a platform to fight against cancel culture”.

In 2017, Ms Jenner had also said that she was considering running for the Senate in California. However, that never materialised.

Critics responded to the news by arguing that neither the right-wing Republican party nor Ms Jenner herself can stand up for the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

Charlotte Clymer, an activist and communications director at Catholics for Choice, tweeted: “The transgender community is diverse in background and thought, and yet, we are overwhelmingly opposed to the policies of the Republican Party, who have shown repeatedly they see us as unworthy of human rights.”

She added: “Caitlyn Jenner may be trans, but she does not represent us. At all.”