Donald Trump's national political director has announced he is "stepping back" from the campaign - the day after a final presidential debate which many Republicans saw as Mr Trump blowing his final chance at electoral victory. Jim Murphy, who joined the team in June, told Politico that he was leaving the campaign for personal reasons .
"I have not resigned but for personal reasons have had to take a step back from the campaign," he told the site.
Mr Murphy was described by Politico as a longtime party operative, who played a key role in setting up field programmes in battleground states.
The departure of Mr Murphy comes at a difficult time for Mr Trump, with a little over two weeks remaining until election day.Mr Trump's "ground game" - his network of activists branching out in swing states - has long been seen as a weakness in the Republican's campaign. By contrast, Hillary Clinton, like Barack Obama before her, established a formidable network of supporters across the country, who use extensive databases to target floating voters.
Mr Murphy is a close ally of Paul Manafort, Mr Trump's former campaign chairman, who resigned in August amid accusations that he had worked for pro-Russia causes in Ukraine.It was unclear who would replace him.
Mr Murphy and Mr Manafort worked together on Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign.
Mr Trump's campaign has seen several evolutions since its launch last summer. The first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was ousted in June and replaced by Mr Manafort .
Mr Manafort then resigned in August, and was replaced by Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon, a founder of right-wing website Breitbart.
The Democrats seized on the rapid staff turnover as a sign of a dysfunctional team.
Mr Trump's supporters insisted that it was just the natural process of a campaign - likening the election season to a relay race.
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