Gillespie will challenge Warner, hire Obenshain campaign manager | TheHill

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie has decided to challenge Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and will announce his campaign next week, two sources close to Gillespie confirm to The Hill.

Gillespie is also close to finalizing much of his campaign staff and has selected Chris Leavitt as campaign manager — a young GOP strategist who most recently ran Republican Mark Obenshain’s 2013 race for Virginia attorney general. Obenshain lost the race by fewer than 1,000 votes, out-performing the rest of the GOP ticket.

Much of the rest of Gillespie’s team will be veterans of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R) successful 2009 campaign, on which Gillespie was a senior strategist.

“He is running. It’ll be announced next week,” one of the sources said Thursday night.

Gillespie himself wouldn’t confirm or deny that he’d firmly made a decision to run in a brief phone conversation with The Hill earlier Thursday evening.

“I’ve been asking folks and talking to people about advice, that kind of thing. I’ve got until Feb. 1st,” he told The Hill, referencing Virginia’s filing deadline.

When asked if he had been telling people he was definitely in or not, he again demurred.

“I’ve been having conversations with folks. People are asking what my intentions are. I’ll let you know as soon as I’m ready to announce a decision one way or the other,” Gillespie said before ending the call.

The New York Times first reported Thursday evening that Gillespie was telling Republicans that he had decided to run.

via Gillespie will challenge Warner, hire Obenshain campaign manager | TheHill.