Trump picks ex-GOP Rep. Sean Duffy for transportation secretary

President-elect Trump said Monday that his selection for the role of transportation secretary in his upcoming administration is former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.)

“I am pleased to announce that former Congressman Sean Duffy, from the Great State of Wisconsin, is nominated to serve as the Secretary of Transportation,” Trump said in a statement. “Sean has been a tremendous and well-liked public servant, starting his career as a District Attorney for Ashland, Wisconsin, and later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District.”

Duffly left the House in late 2019 in the wake of learning that one of his children had a heart condition. He has historically been a supporter of the president-elect, defending Trump’s controversial 2017 executive order on immigration imposing a 90-day ban on nationals from seven mostly Muslim countries from coming into the U.S.

“What’s wrong with a pause? We’ve having a pause for 90 days. Why is that so radical?” Duffy said on CNN’s “New Day” at the time.

In his Monday statement, Trump said Duffy “was a respected voice and communicator in the Republican Conference, advocating for Fiscal Responsibility, Economic Growth, and Rural Development” while “in Congress.”

Trump also urged Duffy to run for Wisconsin governor in 2022, saying he was trying “hard to get very popular and capable Former Congressman Sean Duffy of Wisconsin to run for Governor” in late 2021.

Duffy said later in early 2022 that he would not run for the Badger State’s top office.

“Hopefully I’m not riding off into the sunset,” Duffy said Thursday on 1130 WISN, a talk radio station. “I’m just running into the sunset right now. If an opportunity presents itself, I’d like to come back and partake in Wisconsin politics.”