Public Service Commissioner Tricia Pridemore hired a pair of veterans from Donald Trump's 2016 campaign to bolster her primary bid.
Normally, such news wouldn’t be terribly noteworthy, but Pridemore is facing attacks that she isn’t sufficiently supportive of the president.
They're coming from tea party acolyte Debbie Dooley, a supporter of Pridemore's GOP primary rival John Hitchins. Dooley took Pridemore to task for past tweets that were critical of Trump, questioning whether conservatives should support Pridemore in the May 22 vote.
Pridemore fired back this week, saying that she received congratulatory calls from two Trump administration officials shortly after Gov. Nathan Deal tapped her to the vacant post earlier this year.
“Their message was let’s get to work, and that is exactly what I have done,” said Pridemore, who added that she worked with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and other Trump officials to “begin advancing his goals of securing American energy independence” and infrastructure improvements.
Pridemore’s two hires aim to drive that message home.
The first is Thomas Midanek, who was Trump’s director of “battleground states” and also served as the White House’s Southeast political director until November 2017.The second is Brian Seitchick, who served as Trump’s Arizona director and now leads a political strategy firm.
The winner of the May vote will face one of two Democrats: Dawn Randolph, a consultant, or former state Sen. Doug Stoner.
About the Author
