What to know about Reince Priebus, RNC speaker and chairman of the host committee

This week at the 2024 Republican National Convention, a familiar face to former President Donald Trump and to Wisconsin politics will be among the many speakers: Reince Priebus.

The former White House chief of staff and chairman of the host committee for the RNC has overseen the event, which raised over $85 million in fundraising, and remains a political player in the Republican party.

Here’s what to know about Priebus.

Who is Reince Priebus?

Reince Priebus has a lengthy political history that began in Wisconsin and has proximity with the country’s highest political office.

Priebus is chairman of the host committee of the 2024 RNC, but he is perhaps best known for his short-lived stint as the White House chief of staff for the first six months of Trump’s presidency before he resigned amid a difficult week for the administration. He’s since mended his relationship with the former president, reflected by his inclusion as a speaker this week at the RNC and making appearances alongside Trump at rallies.

Priebus's tenure as chief of staff came to a jarring end when Trump hired the (also short-lived) Anthony Scaramucci as his communications director. He publicly criticized the former Wisconsin GOP leader, and he was later fired.

He was elected chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party in 2007 and became the general counsel for the Republican National Committee in 2009.

Priebus also served as chairman of the Republican National Committee across three terms, from 2011 to 2017.

Priebus ran for state Senate in 2004. He lost to Bob Wirch, a Democrat.

In 2021, sources told the Journal Sentinel that Priebus was mulling runs for governor or U.S. Senate in Wisconsin.

He is also president and chief strategist of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP’s Washington, D.C. office, a law firm.

PolitiFact, a fact-checking website with a Journal Sentinel team of contributors, repeatedly fact checked Priebus between 2010 to 2017. It found 46% of statement’s checked false, 30% half-true and 10% mostly true, across 30 fact checks.

Priebus grew up in Kenosha County and was born in New Jersey. He is 52 and is married with two children.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Get to know Reince Priebus,