Reince Priebus Biography

Reinhold “Reince” Priebus is a Wisconsin attorney who became the chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2011, then and helped lift Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016.

Shortly after the 2016 election, Reince Priebus was named as Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff, a post he held for only six months.

Priebus grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin and studied English and Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater before earning a law degree in 1998 from the University of Miami School of Law.

Back in Wisconsin and active in politics and corporate litigation, Priebus ran unsuccessfully for the state senate in 2004, but in 2007 was named the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party. Two years later, he was named general counsel for the Republican National Committee.

Elected to be Chairman of the RNC in January of 2011, Priebus replaced Michael Steele and took over a party divided and in debt. By the presidential election of 2012, he had turned things around in terms of fundraising (if not a successful election for Mitt Romney), and Priebus was reelected as Chairman in 2013 and again in 2015.

As Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff, Priebus served from January 2017 through July 2017.