As the 2008 presidential race takes shape, one Rhode Islander will be working for the campaign of U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Christian Winthrop will be the Arizona Republican’s deputy campaign manager in New Hampshire, slated to be the site of the first presidential primary in the nation on Jan. 22, 2008. (The Iowa caucus is eight days earlier, on Jan. 14.)

Winthrop, 34, was campaign manager for two-time Republican congressional candidate Dave Rogers. Most recently, he worked for John Spencer, the Republican who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. Winthrop lives in New York City, but said he will move to New Hampshire to start the new post in early February.

As of last week, McCain’s candidacy for president was still in the exploratory phase. Declared Republican candidates included Sam Brownback, U.S. senator from Kansas, and California Congressman Duncan Hunter.

Winthrop said he wanted to work for McCain because “John McCain is a true American hero and he’s going to make an excellent president of the United States.”

Winthrop is a Newport native who attended Rogers High School and graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1996.

Earlier in his career, he worked for the other side, helping to raise money for the Rhode Island Democratic Party and working as a constituent liaison for former Rhode Island Senate Majority Leader Paul S. Kelly. Winthrop also worked for the 1998 reelection campaign of U.S. Rep. Robert A. Weygand, then two years later worked for the campaign of former Lt. Gov. Richard Licht, who was running against Weygand in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.