N.J. native Kellyanne Conway named White House counselor

Conway was named White House counselor, a senior role, on Thursday. Trump called her "a trusted adviser and strategist who played a crucial role in my victory."

"She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message," Trump said in a statement.

Trump reportedly had talked to Conway about becoming White House press secretary, but she sought a higher-level position and said Thursday on CNN that her role will include "communications, data and strategy."

Friends and family members describe Conway, 49, as razor-smartsharp and intensely determined even from a young age, and as someone who is still in touch with her South Jersey roots as she climbs to the top of national politics and raises four children in Alpine.

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Conway was a ubiquitous presence on the campaign trail this year: coaching Trump to stay on-message, polling in the swing states, coordinating field offices and defending her controversial boss in non-stop television interviews. Powered by a seemingly endless reserve of Zen and stamina during a raucous campaign, Conway was credited with bringing data, old-school political skills and a measure of discipline to Trump’s team, helping to catapult the political newcomer to an unexpected victory in the presidential race against Hillary Clinton.

Displaying some of her confidence and sense of humor, at a recent Halloween costume party, Conway went dressed as Supergirl and posted a picture on Twitter posing next to a smiling Trump giving a thumbs-up.

“Once she made her mind up on something, she never quit,” said Mickey Pullia, a local councilman in the South Jersey town of Hammonton who has known Conway since grammar school. “She was always a strong lady as a girl, very intelligent, and very, very witty.”

She is the rare adviser who can call out her boss in public and still retain trust – Conway called Trump’s comments about groping women from a 2005 video “offensive and disgusting” – and she was often the face of the Trump campaign, and now the transition team, facing cameras and reporters almost daily to reassure America about a man who has polarized the country with anti-immigrant positions and a campaign that galvanized white supremacists.

“They were all very, very strong women. And they ran that show,” said J. Garfield DeMarco, a cousin of Conway’s who was the longtime chairman of the Burlington County Republican Party. “That house, I call it an Amazon compound, and it’s not far off. They’re all wonderful ladies and great cooks. If you haven’t had a meal at the DiNatales’, you haven’t eaten.”

In Hammonton, Conway attended St. Joseph High School and spent her summers picking blueberries at her grandfather’s farm on Pleasant Mills Road, winning an award for fastest picker one year. She has said that Ronald Reagan inspired her to become a Republican, and she began her career working for Reagan’s pollster, Richard Wirthlin.

Before she started working for top Republicans including Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Vice President Dan Quayle, Conway was the strategist behind some New Jersey campaigns, such as the Mercer County executive race that Republican Bob Prunetti won in 1999. She has also been hired by businesses such as ABC News, American Express, Hasbro, Major League Baseball as an expert on what female consumers want. She established her firm, the Polling Company Inc./WomanTrend, in 1995.

“She was able to take complex data and boil it down so politicians — people like me — could understand it and act based on it,” Prunetti recalled. “She knew who we had to go after, where our core constituents would be, and where the voters were that we had to target.”

As the lead spokesperson for the Trump campaign, Conway was often called on to explain and defend her boss’s sharp attacks on immigrants, Muslims, minorities, women and other groups.

Trump vowed in the campaign to ban Muslim immigration into the United States. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Conway said the ban would not focus on religion, but rather the country of origin. In effect, many Muslims would be banned if the Trump administration banned entry from hot-spot countries in the Middle East.

Earlier this week, she also criticized President Obama's decision to investigate what intelligence agencies have determined was a Russian attempt to disrupt the presidential election by hacking the email accounts of top Democratic officials and the Democratic National Committee. Obama vowed retaliation against Russia, and Conway accused him of playing politics.

At a Harvard event recapping the campaign earlier this month, Conway fumed when top Clinton campaign staff accused Trump of giving a platform to white supremacists.

Said Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign's communications director: “If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician, I am proud to have lost.” said Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign’s communications director.

“Do you think you could have just had a decent message for white, working-class voters?” Conway asked, according to the Washington Post. “How about, it’s Hillary Clinton, she doesn’t connect with people? How about, they have nothing in common with her? How about, she doesn’t have an economic message?”

At the start of the Republican primary season, Conway worked for a super PAC supporting Cruz, the Texas senator who challenged Trump unsuccessfully for the nomination. One of Trump’s top donors, Rebekah Mercer, recommended Conway and got her on Trump’s team as his third – and final – campaign manager. Federal Election Commission records show Conway’s firm billed Trump’s campaign a total of $937,000.

DeMarco said Conway, a staunch conservative, keeps an open mind.

“I’m openly gay, so when my companion and I would visit the DiNatales, not only was the family very hospitable and very friendly, I never detected one note of homophobia, and she was very gracious,” he said.

Conway was also tough on those who crossed her family, DeMarco recalled. She raised hell and scared away school bullies who picked on a cousin, Markie.

“He idolizes Kellyanne, even though he may not agree with her on political things,” DeMarco said.

The pollster married George T. Conway III, a lawyer at the New York firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, and they have four children under the age of 12. Her mother, Diane Fitzpatrick, has moved in with them and helps care for the children.

Asked on the Fox Business Network on Thursday whether she would have a hard time managing the demands of a White House job and a young family, she gave a forceful response.

"I would say that I don't play golf and I don't have a mistress, so I have a lot of time that a lot of these other men don't," Conway said.

Even as she climbed to the top of Republican politics, Conway kept in touch with her New Jersey roots. Two weeks ago, she  returned to Hammonton to lead the Christmas parade and receive the key to the city. Pullia said all it took was a phone call to a mutual friend to get Conway onboard.

“We were just sitting around one night, and we were talking, and I said, ‘Hey, I went to high school with that person,’” he said. “Her accomplishments, regardless of who got elected, are amazing.”