GOP names state campaign leaders for 2016

The Republican State Leadership Committee on Tuesday will announce its new slate of executive directors, who will promote and protect candidates in down-ballot races across the country.

The group is split into three caucuses — the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association, Republican Secretaries of State Committee, and the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee — as well as two initiatives targeting women and other underrepresented candidates. 

{mosads}“I am very excited for the team we have assembled for the 2015-2016 election cycle,” RSLC President Matt Walter said in a statement given first to The Hill. 

“The 2013-2014 cycle brought our party record high numbers of conservative elected leaders on the state level, and I know our new executive directors are up to the task of raising the bar even higher this cycle.” 

Scott Binkley will take over the group’s Republican Lieutenant Governors Association after serving as corporate director at the Republican Governors Association. Thirty-one of the 45 lieutenant governors are Republican.

Emily Keech, who worked as an aide to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), will head the Republican Secretaries of State Committee. The GOP currently holds a slight majority of the nation’s secretaries of state. 

Kiley Smith will lead the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, which seeks to defend GOP state legislators. Currently, Republicans control 69 out of the 99 legislative chambers at the state level, according to the RSLC.

Courtney Johnson, a former campaign aide to Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race and to Meg Whitman in the 2010 California gubernatorial race, will direct the group’s Right Women Right Now initiative to support female candidates.  

And Neri Ann Martinez will reprise her role as the executive director of the Future Majority Project, which focuses on attracting candidates with both racial and gender diversity. In 2012, the group promoted Hispanic candidates and sought out younger voters.

The five will be at the head of the RSLC’s drive to bolster the party’s standing in down-ballot races during a presidential year. Those smaller races could be key in deciding which party controls state legislatures and executive branches by 2020, when the next round of redistricting occurs.

During the 2014 cycle, the GOP gained majorities in 10 additional legislative bodies, added six new lieutenant governors, and ended with 28 secretaries of state.