A top surrogate for President Trump’s 2016 campaign is considering her own run for office, a potential bid to replace Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) if Black runs for governor of Tennessee.
Scottie Nell Hughes, who made frequent appearances on CNN for Trump during the campaign, told the Washington Examiner that top Republicans are urging her to consider a run.
“I was first approached just days after election night as the rumors of Congresswoman Black running for Governor of Tennessee were already swirling,” Hughes said Tuesday.
If Hughes runs, she says she’ll run as a supporter of Trump and his agenda.
“President Trump has an aggressive agenda, which I believe will make life better for my community and communities like mine around this country,” Hughes said. “However, he needs strong allies to stand shoulder to shoulder with him and work with him to see many of his campaign promises turned into policy.”
{mosads}While Democrats have looked to ride Trump’s low approval rating into special election and 2018 midterm victories elsewhere in the country, Hughes’s Trump ties could help in Tennessee’s 6th District, which Trump won by nearly 50 percentage points in 2016.
Black is the chair of the House Budget Committee. In June, a local Republican official told The Hill that Black’s “people” were reaching out to probe a possible gubernatorial run.
“She’s probably going to get in,” said Beth Campbell, a Republican National Committeewoman for Tennessee said in June.
Black told The Hill in June that she hasn’t yet made a decision on a possible run for governor.
“That decision has not been made yet. There are a lot of rumors out there. I will let you know if I make that decision,” Black said.
Hughes currently works for the Committee to Defend the President, a PAC known during the 2016 presidential election as the Stop Hillary PAC. The PAC was created in 2013, more than 2 years before Trump announced his run for president. The PAC renamed itself in January following Trump’s inauguration.