WASHINGTON (TIP):  President Donald Trump announced, September 12, appointment of his close aide Raj Shah to a key White House position. The Indian American will serve as Deputy Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Press Secretary. Mr. Shah formerly served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Communications Director.

Before joining the White House, Shah, who is in his early 30s, was in charge of opposition research in Republican National Committee where he led a team of experts to carry out research against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate. Shah was behind all the anti-Clinton campaign during the presidential elections.

Shah’s parents immigrated to the US from Mumbai with origins in Gujarat. First his father came to the US for studies in 1970s then moved back to India. But after marriage his father and mother moved back to the US in late 70s. They lived in Chicago and then moved to Connecticut. Shah was born and raised in Connecticut. He attended Brien McMahon High School and was named an Ettinger Scholar in Norwalk. He studied government at Cornell (2002-2006) and received the bachelor’s degree in 2006.

Shah volunteered in Bridgeport for Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) during high school and interned for Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and others in Washington as his interest in politics developed. He interned in the White House in 2005.

By the 2012 presidential election cycle, Shah was deputy research director at the RNC and he said in that job “he learned what not to do in the 2016 election”. He worked with campaign staff and manager of the Mitt Romney campaign and others to plan how, particularly, to try to defeat Hillary Clinton well before she announced she was running in 2016. Shah was also a co-founder of America Rising, “a right-leaning political action committee that produces opposition research on Democratic candidates”.