Government | Politics 2024: CHRIS LaCIVITA

Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Chesterfield County, Republican power player LaCivita is a former Marine, a Purple Heart recipient and one of a handful of insiders who has former President Donald Trump’s ear. LaCivita got his start as a GOP political strategist in the 1990s, working on George Allen’s successful congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.

In 2004, the Gulf War veteran became a media adviser to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a political organization that helped sink the presidential campaign of Democrat John Kerry and produced the term “swiftboating,” meaning an unfair or untrue political attack. During the Obama era, LaCivita ran Republican congressional and state legislative campaigns and also consulted on Ken Cuccinelli’s unsuccessful 2013 bid for governor.

In 2020, LaCivita joined Preserve America, a pro-Trump PAC, and later became chief strategist of Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC. As of March, he co-manages Trump’s 2024 campaign and is the Republican National Committee’s chief operating officer. In July, LaCivita got into a political spat on X with Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott. He also reportedly forced out Paul Dans, director of the Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 initiative, from which Trump has sought to distance himself.