President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former State Department spokesperson and one-time Tennessee congressional candidate Morgan Ortagus as deputy special presidential envoy in the Middle East.
Trump announced the pick on Friday.
The former Fox News national security commentator is a Florida native who moved to Nashville in 2021. She currently hosts a Sirius XM radio show. Ortagus worked in both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations, serving as spokesperson with the U.S. Agency for International Development before moving to the Treasury Department as an intelligence analyst.
Months after she moved to Tennessee, she launched her campaign for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District. Trump backed her for the seat, but her candidacy sparked months of intraparty fighting among Tennessee Republicans. Some Republicans in the legislature quickly moved to enact residency requirements that would require candidates to live in their district for at least three years before running for office.
Though the legislation ultimately didn’t impact Ortagus’s candidacy, the Tennessee Republican Party eventually booted her from the ballot for failing to meet its “bona fide” candidate requirements, which include voting in three of the last four previous Tennessee GOP primaries.
U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, eventually won election to the seat.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Trump picks Morgan Ortagus as deputy Middle East peace envoy