RNC Appoints Jeb Alumna After Hispanic Communications Director Quits

The Republican National Committee has named a Miami journalist and Trump critic to become the party’s director of Hispanic communications.

The mid-cycle shakeup comes as a mid-May Fox News Latino poll found 23 percent of registered Hispanic voters saying they’ll vote for Donald Trump.

Helen Aguirre Ferré was the host of daily talk show “Zona Politica con Helen Aguirre” on Univision Radio from 2010 to 2015 and a columnist for El Nuevo Herald from 2013 to 2016. She is currently chair of the board of trustees at Miami Dade College and worked on Hispanic outreach for Jeb Bush’s campaign.

“I’m excited to welcome Helen Aguirre Ferré as our new Director of Hispanic Communications,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “Helen will be an integral part of our Party’s ongoing commitment to build relationships and communicate our message directly with Hispanic voters. Her wealth of experience is complemented by a keen strategic vision, top-notch communication skills, and outstanding leadership qualities, and she is going to be a tremendous asset to the RNC as we seek to stop Hillary Clinton and elect a Republican president.”

“I am proud to be joining the RNC at such a critical time,” Ferré said in a statement released by the RNC. “This is one of the most important elections of our lifetime, and I’m eager to make the case to the Hispanic community why Republican ideas and values are the way forward for our country after eight years of an Obama agenda which has failed all Americans.”

Ferré was quickly appointed after Ruth Guerra, who was director of Hispanic media for the RNC, announced Wednesday evening that she would be leaving. The New York Times reported that RNC staffers said Guerra, who is joining the American Action Network super PAC, was uncomfortable working for Trump’s candidacy, though Guerra would not comment on her feelings about the presumptive nominee to the paper.

Last month, Ferré told Univision’s Al Punto Florida of Trump, “I do think there’s something that bothers him about strong and independent women.” She would not comment on Trump when interviewed by The Miami Herald about her new position.

Tweets critical of Trump have been deleted from Ferré’s account.

Tweeting out on April 26 an NYT op-ed titled “How Donald Trump’s Squeeze on Immigrants Will Backfire,” Ferré wroted, “It’s all he’ll ever be & it’s not flattering. Trump back to being Trump.”

On Feb. 29 she tweeted, “Wonder if Chris Christie and Senator Sessions now regret supporting Trump or do the means justify the end? Telling either way.”

On May 10 she noted that Hispanic Republicans were “caught in 2016 meat grinder.”