Ex-Arizona official to leave NASA job

PHOENIX — Former Arizona state Treasurer Jeff DeWit is stepping down as chief financial officer at NASA, leaving a job he accepted nearly two years ago after helping run President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.

DeWit said Wednesday he will return to Arizona and has no plans to seek another elected office.

“I’m very much looking forward to a simple life of being a Dad who shows up again to all the kids’ sports and school events, and working in the private sector,” he wrote in a note to The Associated Press.

The Republican resigned as state treasurer in March 2018 after he was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the post overseeing the space agency’s $22.6 billion budget.

In a letter to NASA employees announcing his decision Tuesday, DeWit said he had been in discussions about the timing of his resignation since December.

DeWit and his wife have three daughters and live in metro Phoenix.

He called working as CFO at NASA headquarters “the honor of a lifetime.”