Jeb Bush’s campaign manager Danny Diaz pushed back against rumors of a slowdown in the governor’s campaign in a panel discussion with National Review editor Rich Lowry on Monday.
“We’re playing to win in all four primary states,” Diaz said.
In the latest CNN poll, Bush stands at fifth place with 9 percent support. Diaz chalks it up to timing.
“It’s early. It’s September,” he said. “We’re pushing forward. That’s what winners do.”
Diaz constructed an image of Bush he says voters may not see from the outside. The governor, he said, routinely outworks his staff, putting in 18-hour days. “Ever-ready was already his code name as governor,” he said. Bush added levity to the CNN debate last week when, in response to accusations of lethargy, he said he’d make the battery tagline his Secret Service code name.
#share#“This is nothing new,” Diaz added. “This is what I see from the inside.”
Diaz said that Bush has “the most accomplished conservative record” on the stage right now. He said he believes he’ll be “the last one standing” at the end of the primary, waving off concerns that Donald Trump’s attacks on Bush may irreparably harm the former governor’s candidacy.
#related#He said that apart from Bush’s record in Florida, his personality is one thing that makes him “the whole package” for a leader. “He gives out his e-mail address to everyone he meets,” he said.
But he sets himself apart, Diaz added, because when people write Bush, “he responds.”