Who Is Brad Parscale? Former Trump Digital Director Named 2020 Campaign Manager

President Donald Trump on Tuesday named Brad Parscale, the digital media director of his successful 2016 campaign, as his 2020 campaign manager. The news comes after conservative news aggregating site Drudge Report teased of a "shock announcement."

Parscale, 42, is a relatively unknown political figure but is considered to be highly regarded within Trump’s circle. The native of Topeka, Kansas, joined the Trump Organization in 2011 as a digital media expert and was responsible for creating the website for Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.

In recent weeks, Parscale has started to garner more attention as news outlets have more closely examined the role of social media during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. While Trump was thought to be lagging behind the Hillary Clinton campaign in terms of technology and digital strategies, it was recently revealed that the Trump campaign had much more success on social media—especially Facebook—than was initially realized.

In a piece published in Wired, Antonio Garcia Martinez, a former product manager for Facebook’s ad targeting team, explained how the Trump campaign was able to successfully navigate Facebook’s advertising tools and produce ads that reached huge audiences for a fraction of the cost of what the Clinton campaign was paying.

In 2016, Pascale was quoted as saying: “I always wonder why people in politics act like this stuff is so mystical,” in reference to digital marketing and advertisements. “It’s the same shit we use in commercial, just has fancier names.”

On Twitter, Parscale suggested the Trump campaign paid “pennies” in CPM (cost-per-thousand), or the cost to have an advertisement reach 1,000 people within a set target audience.

He also estimated the Clinton campaign likely paid 100 or 200 times as much as the Trump campaign did to reach a similar-sized audience, an estimate that Jennifer Palmieri, director of communications for Clinton’s campaign, agreed with on Twitter.

Parscale’s success leading Trump’s digital infrastructure during the 2016 campaign was a surprise to many at the time—though it isn’t necessarily indicative of understanding how to run a full-blown presidential campaign. Trump went through two campaign managers in 2016—Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort—before settling on Kellyanne Conway to close out the campaign.

In a press release, members of the Trump family and administration praised Parscale. "Brad is an amazing talent and was pivotal to our success in 2016. He has our family's complete trust and is the perfect person to be at the helm of the campaign," said Eric Trump, Donald Trump's second-oldest son.

Jared Kushner, a senior advisor to the President and Trump’s son-in-law, said, “Brad was essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign was run. His leadership and expertise will be help build a best-in-class campaign.”