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Former Pa. gov candidate Paul Mango joins Trump administration

Paul Mango, a former health-care consultant who ran unsuccessfully this year for governor of Pennsylvania, is joining the Trump administration.

Paul Mango, a former GOP candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, is joining the Trump administration.
Paul Mango, a former GOP candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, is joining the Trump administration.Read moreSTEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer

Paul Mango, a former health-care consultant who lost a bid this year to be the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, is joining the Trump administration.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is housed in the Department of Health and Human Services, on Tuesday named Mango chief of staff and chief principal deputy administrator.

The 6,000-employee agency has a $1 trillion budget and manages its namesake programs as well as the Children's Health Insurance Program and the marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act.

Mango said on Facebook that he had known President Trump's top appointees at HHS — Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma — for many years. "It will be a privilege to join their team and to help implement the president's agenda to strengthen health care," he wrote.

Verma said she looked forward to having Mango's support "as we deliver on President Trump's agenda and execute on our strategy on behalf of the American people."

Mango will be paid in accordance with the senior executive system pay scale, according to CMS; executives in similar positions make as much as $189,600.

Mango, who lives outside Pittsburgh, was a longtime executive at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He finished second in a three-candidate primary in May for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, losing to former State Sen. Scott Wagner.

Gov. Wolf, a Democrat, is running for a second term in November.

Mango ran as a social conservative who attacked Wagner for supporting anti-discrimination legislation that would protect LGBT individuals. He said during the campaign that he supported work requirements for able-bodied adults on Medicaid. The Trump administration has adopted that approach.

An Army veteran, Mango graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and Harvard Business School.

In the 2016 presidential race, he contributed to Jeb Bush's campaign but later supported Trump as Trump closed in on the Republican nomination. Mango's campaign also shared one of the Trump campaign's Pennsylvania advisers, David Urban.