Reinhold Richard Priebus ( ; born March 18, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2011 to 2017 and as White House chief of staff during the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency.
Raised in Wisconsin, Priebus worked as a clerk and graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in 1998. After working for law firm Michael Best, he was elected chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party in 2007. In 2009, Priebus became the general counsel for the Republican National Committee. He won the 2011 Republican National Committee chairmanship election. As chairman, Priebus frequently criticized the policies of president Barack Obama. He also presided over the Republican Party during the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016, when he opposed Donald Trump during the early stages of the primaries, but later supported him in the general election. He began serving as Trump's chief of staff in January 2017 until resigning in July of that year. Priebus, who had the shortest tenure of any non-interim chief of staff in American history, drew controversy for his management style.
Early life and legal career
Priebus was born on March 18, 1972, the son of Dimitra Pitsiladis and Richard Priebus. Born in Dover, New Jersey, he lived in Netcong, New Jersey, until his family moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin, when he was seven years old. His father is a former union electrician and his mother a real estate agent. His father is of German and English descent and his mother is of Greek descent; she was born to parents originally from Mytilene and Khartoum, since there was a sizable community of Greek settlers in Sudan at the time.
At the age of 16, he volunteered for his first political campaign. He attended Tremper High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, graduating in 1990. After graduating from Tremper, he attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, where he majored in English and political science, and joined the Delta Chi fraternity. He graduated cum laude in 1994 and prior to that had been elected to serve as student body president.
After graduation from Whitewater, Priebus served as a clerk for the Wisconsin State Assembly Education Committee. He then enrolled at the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, Florida. While there, he worked as a clerk for the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and interned at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in California.
In 1998, he graduated with a Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the University of Miami, after serving as president of the law school student body. He moved back to Wisconsin and became a member of the state bar. Subsequently, he joined Wisconsin law firm Michael Best, where he became a partner in 2006, practicing in the firm's litigation and corporate practice groups. He currently serves as president and chief strategist at Michael Best and is also chairman of the Board of Advisors.
Early political career
Priebus ran for election to the Wisconsin State Senate in 2004, losing 52 to 48 percent, to the Democratic incumbent, Robert Wirch. In 2007, following a successful campaign, he was elected chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, the youngest person to have held that role to date. Two years later, in 2009, he also became the general counsel for the Republican National Committee (RNC).
As chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, Priebus led the party to success in the November 2010 elections in Wisconsin, which was previously a state held by the Democratic Party. The party won control of the State Senate and Assembly; a Republican candidate was elected to the governorship. He worked to bring Wisconsin's Tea Party movement together with the mainstream Republican party organization and avoid conflict between the two.
Priebus continued as state party chairman and general counsel to the RNC until 2010, when he stepped down as general counsel to run for election to chairman of the committee.