Susie Wiles among the Jacksonville operatives in the Trump and Harris campaigns

Three political operatives who worked on campaigns in Jacksonville will take center stage Tuesday when the results of a tight race come out between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Florida is not the state of the battlefield this timebut in a country where swing states will determine the next president, Jacksonville’s political scene, with its big-spending mayoral elections and shifting political currents, has been a place where shrewd consultants are rewarded.

Here are three Trump and Harris campaign staffers who made their mark in Jacksonville, not only in candidate selections, but also in some high-profile referenda for the Better Jacksonville Plan and paying down the pension debt.

Trump campaign co-manager Susie Wiles

Before Susie Wiles became a nationally known figure in political circles, she was a top staff member for Jacksonville Mayors John Delaney and John Payton.

Wiles, a Ponte Vedra resident, served as Delaney’s chief of staff and worked on a successful half-cent sales tax campaign to support Jacksonville’s Better Plan it was a notable achievement of his time as mayor.

She was Peyton’s head of communications and special initiatives when she coordinated the creation Jacksonville trip an anti-crime program that has had some success in reducing the city’s high homicide rate. She also worked on Accord River for St. Johns River Improvement.

Wiles later escaped Rick Scott’s successful campaign for governor in 2010 and led Trump’s victory in Florida in 2016 when he was elected president. She was a senior adviser at Ron DeSantis’ winning run for the post of governor in 2018.

Wiles said in an USA TODAY interview that she considers herself a team player, and that having other staff involved in the public part of the campaign allows her to “do a better job” organizing the mechanics.

“I prefer to be in the background,” she said, which Delaney agreed with in her USA Today profile.

“She hates the spotlight,” he said.

Senior Trump adviser Brian Hughes helped Curry win the election

Brian Hughes burst onto the Jacksonville political scene as one of Lenny Curry’s top political strategists when Curry won the 2015 mayoral election.

Hughes played a similar leading role when Curry won voter support for a half-cent sales tax to pay off the city’s massive pension debt that had been building up for years. This half-cent sales tax will take effect after the Better Jacksonville Plan sales tax expires at the end of 2030.

Hughes then transitioned from the political world to the government side of City Hall when Curry hired him the head of his apparatus in 2018. He also served as interim CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority before becoming chief administrative officer, the highest position in city government.

“For me and dozens of other elected officials, Brian Hughes has been a senior adviser on important public policy and communications issues,” Curry said when he named Hughes his chief of staff.

After Curry’s term as mayor ended, Hughes was hired by the Trump campaign in 2023 as its Florida director and later promoted to senior adviser. Curry is not part of Trump’s campaign staff, but he was a supporter of Trump’s re-election campaign.

Obi Omunna: Harris’ campaign manager in the southern states

While Wiles and Hughes worked on Republican campaigns, Jacksonville’s Nwabufo “Obi” Umunna’s path to a regional role in Vice President Kamala Harris’ operation went through the Jacksonville Democratic Party.

Umunna, a native of Jacksonville and graduate of the University of North Florida, is the founder and managing partner Umunna Legal Group. He got into politics when he managed Darryl Willey’s 2014 run for the Duval County School Board. Willie did not win that election, but Umunna went on to serve as a campaign consultant for Warren Jones’ victorious School Board race, and in 2020, he served as Joe Biden’s North Florida presidential campaign director.

He also served as a campaign advisor or consultant to Nikki Fried when she ran for governor, Kelly Coker when she won the school board race, and State Senator Tracy Davis when she was elected in 2022.

Harris’ campaign this year has him as political director and coalition director in the southern battleground, while Harris is making a concerted effort to win in Georgia and North Carolina.