Trump campaign brings on A.J. Delgado as a senior adviser
A.J. Delgado, an attorney from Miami, joined Donald Trump’s campaign as a senior adviser last week after the Labor Day holiday.
During the presidential campaign, Delgado, a Cuban-American, has emerged as a prominent Trump supporter, appearing on both English- and Spanish-language news broadcasts. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told Yahoo News that Delgado’s role in the campaign will focus mainly on communications. She will spend several days a week at the Trump campaign headquarters in New York City.
“I am so pleased to join the Trump-Pence campaign as a senior adviser. As a longtime supporter of his candidacy, it is a great honor to stand behind Mr. Trump, and I look forward to continuing to spread his positive message and advocate for his policies placing Americans first,” Delgado said.
In a conversation with Yahoo News, the Trump campaign’s senior communications adviser, Jason Miller, described Delgado as a “triple threat” because of her ability to connect with a wide variety of voters.
“The thing that I love about A.J. is the range of audiences she can go and speak to. So, as we talk about conservative street cred, she’s absolutely top of the charts, well known in the conservative movement,” Miller explained. He added that Delgado could speak to “Florida people, being that she’s a Floridian … and then also, I think, being able to talk to Cuban-Americans and Hispanics across the country.”
Miller said Delgado also stood out because she was one of Trump’s grassroots supporters prior to joining the team. Delgado discussed her support for Trump at length in an interview with Yahoo News in March before the Manhattan developer had locked up the nomination.
According to Miller, Delgado will serve as a national surrogate, help with “expanding our outreach with the Latino community nationally,” and work on the campaign’s communications in South Florida, a crucial swing state that contains many Cuban-American voters. Polls show Trump is far behind among Hispanic voters, and his campaign has lagged behind Democrat Hillary Clinton in its minority outreach efforts.
Hosts on both the left-leaning MSNBC and conservative Fox News told Yahoo News that Delgado has emerged as one of Trump’s top television surrogates.
“I think A.J. has been, by far, the most cogent, formidable surrogate for Trump of anyone who’s been doing TV appearances,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said.
“She has incredible communication skills. She is not only a Harvard grad who is brilliant, but she has incredible insight and knowledge on every important issue of the day,” Fox News’ Sean Hannity said, adding, “On top of that, one of the nicest people on television and a huge asset to the Trump campaign and any show she is on. A.J. just crushed it on TV — a total natural talent.”
