Republicans had a secret weapon in the recount battle in Florida

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – Jessica Furst Johnson was scheduled to travel from Washington to Orlando this week for a post-election trip to Walt Disney World with her husband and two young children.

Instead, the 37-year-old general counsel for the 37-year-old Republican National Senate Committee met in Tallahassee, supporting the GOP's legal response to the Senate fight between Senator Bill Nelson, Senator Governor Rick Scott.

His opponent in this fight, the super-democratic Democrat Marc Elias, had more than 50,000 subscribers on Twitter. His CV includes the duties of General Counsel of two presidential campaigns and a profusion of profiles in national publications. Meanwhile, Johnson was operating in relative darkness from Scott's field headquarters.

The main issues for the two lawyers – and their parties – were always the same: a seat in the US Senate and the framework that will govern how Florida's election laws are enforced and interpreted in the 2020 presidential election.

But for Johnson – a Sarasota native, law graduate from the University of Florida and a Scott's admirer – the fight took on another dimension.

"It's personal for me," she said in a telephone interview with NBC News on Friday.

Now that Nelson has surrendered, Scott can thank Johnson and his GOP army of lawyers for helping to preserve his victory by largely defeating the sprawling democratic legal efforts to challenge the actions of election officials and various aspects of the law. Florida.

Although Johnson is one of Washington's leading election law experts, she is eager to point out that she is not a litigator.

"I have a great deal of respect for the people who fought hand-to-hand," she said, spreading credit.

Instead, while she was swallowing milk with almond milk, Johnson was managing the battle plan which, according to Republicans, included more than 100 staff and volunteer lawyers working in halls. hearing and in counting centers throughout the state. With the exception of a 28-hour round trip to Washington at the beginning of the week to go see her, Johnson choreographed Scott's campaign headquarters response.

Some friends say that Johnson was the right person in the right place at the right time for Scott and the operations group, as she is able to keep her calm amidst the chaos, managing people and tasks, and being able to work with her. analyze legal and political issues with knowledge and judgment. .

"She is very balanced and it is always easy to work with her," said veteran political attorney Elliot Berke, president of the Republican National Lawyers Association.

Brad Todd, a senior advisor to the Scott campaign, said Johnson was a boon, as the battle for Senate seats ranged from polling stations to courtrooms and election supervisors' offices.

"The most important thing about Jessica is that she is able to handle many projects with very different personalities and that none of them is upset by her." Politics is full of people who create conflicts as that tool, and Jessica does not create conflict, "Todd says.

Early in her career, Johnson was a protégé of Cleta Mitchell, one of the GOP's leading election lawyers in the past 25 years. Most recently, she worked on the Congressional National Republican Committee, where she began as a General Counsel before being appointed Deputy Executive Director, before taking on the Independent Expenditures Group. of the group.

NRSC Director of Communications Katie Martin, who also worked with Johnson at NRCC, said that her mix of political and legal talent was really rare.

"I'm watching her become a fool for a while now," Martin said. "It's someone who has a political mind, who sees the optics of every situation."

Johnson's political tuner rang on the morning of November 8, two days after polling day, when she saw a group of tweets about Elias that was hiring to help Nelson. Although she has been preparing for possible legal skirmishes during tight races across the country in recent months, Johnson immediately realized that her engagement was a sign of a war.

In no time, she called her husband, Todd, who works for the Republican Governors Association, to make sure the kids would be picked up and booked a flight.

"I knew I was going to Florida," she said.