From the get-go, lead­ers at Col­orado Chris­t­ian University’s Cen­ten­ni­al Insti­tute rec­og­nized Jen­na Ellis’ tal­ents and they moved to put her in front of as many cam­eras and micro­phones as they could.

Ellis — a young con­ser­v­a­tive from Long­mont — was a fight­er then, said Jeff Hunt, the institute’s pres­i­dent. And now she’s tak­en the fight to the nation­al stage as legal advis­er for Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s 2020 campaign.

“We always knew she was tal­ent­ed and smart and was going to help lead this coun­try,” Hunt said. “She was a very good can­di­date for the Trump campaign.”

Ellis’ posi­tion has risen to an even high­er nation­al promi­nence in the days fol­low­ing Tuesday’s elec­tion as she — echo­ing the president’s remarks — called results into ques­tion and accused Democ­rats of foul play with­out evidence.

https://t.co/iUQq4Np7Yr pic.twitter.com/rfvkRCQLN4

— Vera Bergen­gru­en (@VeraMBergen) Novem­ber 5, 2020

“Remem­ber when cats and dogs were receiv­ing bal­lots, the dead peo­ple were receiv­ing bal­lots,” Ellis told Fox News on Thurs­day. “They want all of those bal­lots to count as well.”

Ellis, 35, told The Den­ver Post by email that the president’s main mes­sage is that every legal vote counts.

“We have a sys­tem of free and fair elec­tions in this coun­try that must be pre­served,” she said. “We are fight­ing for elec­tion integri­ty, not just for the out­come of the 2020 pres­i­den­tial race, but for all elec­tions in the future.”

When asked, she did not pro­vide evi­dence of peo­ple cast­ing bal­lots ille­gal­ly but said cam­paign offi­cials — for both Trump and Biden — should be allowed to observe the count “to ensure no ille­gal votes are counted.”

Already judges have thrown out law­suits filed by the Trump cam­paign in Geor­gia and Michi­gan, with one judge say­ing there was no evi­dence bal­lots that had been cast were invalid.

Con­ser­v­a­tives are mis­trust­ful of polit­i­cal sys­tems and the media, Hunt said. And they appre­ci­ate peo­ple like Ellis and Trump call­ing them into question.

“They want the elec­tion to be hon­est,” Hunt said. “There’s a lot of shenani­gans going on right now.”

That fight is a con­tin­u­a­tion of Ellis’ work in Col­orado, he said.

Ear­ly in her career Ellis, an attor­ney, took a strong inter­est in con­sti­tu­tion­al law, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it relates to reli­gious lib­er­ties. She joined the Cen­ten­ni­al Insti­tute in 2015 as a fel­low in con­sti­tu­tion­al law and pol­i­cy after work­ing as a deputy dis­trict attor­ney in Col­orado, a con­tract attor­ney for the U.S. Depart­ment of State and law clerk for the Col­orado Attor­ney General’s Office, accord­ing to her LinkedIn profile.

Bill Arm­strong, then pres­i­dent of Col­orado Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­si­ty, quick­ly rec­og­nized her intel­lect, Hunt said.

“He said ‘Make sure you get her out there and see what she can do. Let’s help her out,’” Hunt said. “And she did real­ly well. She was one of those peo­ple who didn’t mind tak­ing a 3 a.m. inter­view from a con­ser­v­a­tive talk sta­tion in Wisconsin.”

Ellis also took to the halls of the Col­orado Capi­tol, lob­by­ing on behalf of pro-life and reli­gious lib­er­ty caus­es, among others.

Before long local polit­i­cal play­ers real­ized that she was oper­at­ing at a “pro lev­el,” Hunt said and encour­aged her to take her tal­ents to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. She joined Trump’s cam­paign in ear­ly 2019.

Ellis has inspired con­ser­v­a­tive women — show­ing them that women don’t have to be lib­er­al, said Kristi Bur­ton Brown, vice chair of the Col­orado Repub­li­can Party.

“She’s a real go-get­ter. She doesn’t stand on the side­lines,” Bur­ton Brown said. “She takes action and gets things done.”

Ellis sits in the pan­theon with Pen­ny Young Nance, Jeanne Manci­ni, Mar­jorie Jones Dan­nen­felser and Lila Rose, each promi­nent heads of nation­al anti-abor­tion orga­ni­za­tions, Hunt said.

“It’s a sea­son for con­ser­v­a­tive women, for sure,” he said.

Ellis said serv­ing Trump has been the hon­or and priv­i­lege of her life­time and she hopes to impart that Amer­i­can rights are divine­ly grant­ed and the government’s role is to pre­serve those rights. She said she aims to inspire oth­ers to love the Con­sti­tu­tion and the free­doms it grants: Lib­er­ty and jus­tice for all.

“I hope my great­est lega­cy will be teach­ing peo­ple to love the God of the Bible and come to know Jesus Christ as their own per­son­al Lord and Sav­ior. And because of that, under­stand why our Amer­i­can sys­tem mat­ters. Our first free­doms are speech, assem­bly, and free exer­cise of reli­gion,” Ellis said.