President Trump selected a former Republican senator from Texas to represent the United States at NATO, the White House announced.
Trump made the nomination of former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison official on Thursday, following weeks of speculation that she was the leading contender. As a moderate Republican who represented Texas in the Senate from 1993 to 2012, she might expect to receive a warmer welcome from her former colleagues than many of Trump’s nominees, who had their nominations delayed or attacked by the Democratic minority.
“I’d be very encouraged [by her nomination],” Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, told the Dallas Morning News in May. “I have the deepest respect for her.”
Trump’s decision leaves Hutchison with one of the most important foreign policy portfolio’s in the administration. The president’s various criticisms of NATO alarmed members who feared a U.S. withdrawal from the alliance, particularly in light of a resurgent Russia’s aggression in eastern Europe. Those concerns have been eased recently by Trump’s statement that he is “absolutely” committed to defending NATO members against invasion, but Hutchison will have to hold that line while pressuring allies to increase their own defense spending.
“She would be a great public servant in that capacity,” said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., echoing Cardin.
Hutchison’s nomination puts her in a position to join a former rival in the Trump administration. She tried unsuccessfully to unseat then-Gov. Rick Perry, who now leads the Energy Department, in 2010. Her decision not to run for re-election paved the way for Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz to catapult to national prominence in a 2012 election to replace her.
She’ll find another familiar face in Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a fellow Texan and former CEO of Exxon Mobil. Hutchison reportedly participated in mock confirmation hearings in January to help Tillerson prepare for his grilling before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“She participated as a senator, sitting up there on the dais,” a source familiar with the process told the Texas Tribune.
