KATRINA Pierson was the chief correspondent for former President Donald Trump during his 2015 presidential campaign.
She stepped into Trump’s inner circle following a series of political events, which ultimately advanced her career.
Who is Katrina Pierson?
Katrina Pierson worked to spearhead the campaign for former President Donald Trump in 2015, appealing to his supporters in a way others couldn’t.
But before she became known as a conservative leader of the Tea Party movement and before she worked for Trump, Pierson was a Democrat.
Pierson was born in Kansas to her 15-year-old mom in 1976.
She grew up living on welfare and told conservative radio host Glenn Beck that although her mom got pregnant when she was 14 years old, her grandfather didn’t believe in abortion and so her mother decided to give her up for adoption.
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However, the local agency “didn’t specialize in biracial babies,” she said, and her mother went to Kansas to give birth and give her up there.
However, her mother changed her mind and brought Pierson back to Texas after she was born.
Pierson also got pregnant at a young age and gave birth to her son when she was 20 years old.
She worked as a single mom after her marriage ended in divorce and obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2006.
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In 2008, Pierson voted in the presidential election for Barack Obama but her support subsided after he refused to wear an American flag on his lapel, Politico reported.
She instead moved on to join the Texas tea party, a movement within the Republican party that opposed excessive taxes, government involvement in private sectors, and stronger immigration laws.
Pierson told Beck that her childhood story is part of her credibility as a Republican.
“People always ask me how I became so conservative considering where I came from,” she said. “And the simple answer is, I just lived it.”
Did Katrina Pierson run for the Senate?
Pierson started working as a volunteer for Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in 2012 when he made his bid for the Senate seat.
Her involvement had her traipse across the US to garner support for his campaign, praising his commitment to repealing the Affordable Care Act at club meetings, public rallies, and on Twitter.
However, two years later, Pierson announced her own bid for a seat in the Senate, boasting that she held the same qualities she spoke about on behalf of Cruz.
She ran against Rep Pete Sessions (R-Texas), working tirelessly to unseat him, a decision she made while observing him at meetings between Sessions and activists.
“Everything became ‘next time’ basically — next debt ceiling fight, next continuing resolution,” Ms Pierson told The New York Times.
“People seem to forget this nation wasn’t founded on going along to get along.”
Throughout the senatorial bid, Pierson trailed behind Sessions in funding and support, ultimately receiving support from Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz.
Although she did not receive direct support from Cruz who said he would not take sides, at a conservative rally, he described her as being “an utterly fearless principled conservative.”
Pierson ultimately lost by 28 points to Sessions in the 2012 primary.
How did Katrina Pierson meet Donald Trump?
Pierson met Trump while attending a tea party gathering with Cruz in January 2015.
It was there that she heard Trump speak to his supporters about his intent to bring a tough stance to immigration reform and told him she would like to pitch in if he announced his run for president.
Although she was working with Cruz who was running for president, Pierson began to leave after meeting Trump at the tea party gathering.
In November of that year, Trump formally announced he had hired Pierson.
“Cruz would be a good president, but I think right now with all the hyperpartisanship in the country, I think Trump would be the better person to transition out of Obama,” she told Politico.
“It would be a softer transition for some on the left. It would be a harder transition for some on the right.”
Besides, she said, “When Donald says, ‘I think you’re great, I really want you to work for me,’ I don’t think any sane person would say no to that.”