Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump will name former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue as his nominee for secretary of agriculture on Thursday, a senior transition official said on Wednesday.

Perdue, 70, served on Trump's agricultural advisory committee during his presidential campaign. His nomination, which must be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, will complete Trump's proposed Cabinet just two days before he is sworn in as president on Friday.

During his time as governor, Perdue's key agricultural issues included water management and making changes to the tax code that were beneficial to farmers, said Jeffrey Harvey, legislative director for the Georgia Farm Bureau.

Perdue, a Republican, was elected to two terms as governor, serving from 2003 to 2011. Before that, he served in the state Senate representing a rural swath of the state about 100 miles (160 km) south of Atlanta.

After finishing his second term as governor, Perdue founded Perdue Partners, a global trading firm that consults and provides services for companies looking to export products.</s>Former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue speaks to the media in the lobby of Trump Tower, November 30, 2016 in New York, after meetings with US President-elect Donald Trump. / AFP / Bryan R. Smith (Photo credit should read BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images)

President-elect Donald Trump picked former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday to be his agriculture secretary, tapping a veterinarian-turned-politician who was the state’s first Republican governor in more than a century to lead the sprawling department.

Perdue, 70, had emerged as Trump’s leading contender to run the agriculture department in recent days, and he is said to have impressed the New York businessman with his experience in public office and in the private sector.

The announcement could come as soon as Thursday.

Perdue becomes the second Georgian selected to join Trump’s Cabinet after U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Roswell was tapped as health secretary.

And Trump went down to the wire with the Perdue pick, making him his last Cabinet selection before he is sworn into office Friday. The choice was mired in political wrangling, with some factions pushing Trump to opt for someone from the Midwest or to diversify his Cabinet by naming a Hispanic official.

If confirmed, Perdue would become the new head of the $140 billion agency, which dictates the nation’s farm policy and also oversees the food stamp program. He would be the first agriculture secretary from a Southern state since Mike Espy of Mississippi headed the department in the early 1990s.

Perdue has been tight-lipped about the drawn-out process, but he interviewed with Trump on Nov. 30 and enthusiastically sought the job.

“He asked me what my skills sets were and I told him what they were, aside from having been governor, as a business person and primarily in agricultural commodities, trading domestically and internationally,” Perdue told reporters after that meeting. “And he lit up.”

His onetime protege, Nick Ayers, played a key role in helping both Perdue and Price land Cabinet posts. Now a top aide to Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Trump’s transition team, Ayers cut his political teeth on Perdue’s 2002 campaign and has been a longtime aide to the former governor.

“Georgia walks away with two of the most consequential Cabinet secretaries who happen to be the two most qualified for the job,” said Ayers, who is married to a cousin of Perdue’s and was a finalist to lead the Republican National Committee. “It’s a testament to the president’s extraordinary decision making and his appreciation to Georgia.”

A native of Perry, Georgia, Perdue helped craft the state’s agriculture policy in the 1990s as a Democratic state senator from Houston County before switching to the GOP in 1998.

His surprise victory over Gov. Roy Barnes in 2002 – making him Georgia’s first GOP governor since Reconstruction – triggered a Republican wave in Georgia that flipped the state Senate and then the state House. Georgia Republicans now control every statewide office in Georgia.

As governor, he carved out a reliably conservative record that included legislation aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration and creating new photo ID requirements for Georgia voters.

He also oversaw Georgia’s decades-long water dispute with Alabama and Florida and the state’s response to an epic drought that prompted him to call for stiff water restrictions. At the height of the drought in 2007, he joined with other state officials on the statehouse steps to lead a solemn prayer for rain that drew national headlines.

He attracted scrutiny for using taxpayer money to build the Go Fish Education Center near his home in Bonaire, Georgia. The facility has attracted about one-fifth of the visitors expected to use the facility and the state still owes at least $12 million for the project, which the New York Times dubbed a “symbol of waste” when it opened.

Since leaving office in 2011, Perdue has run a string of trucking, agriculture and logistics firms from his base in Middle Georgia – role that helped him appeal to Trump.

He was not always an enthusiastic Trump supporter - he initially endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and then former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush - but he stumped for Trump across Georgia in the final months of his campaign and served on the president-elect’s agriculture advisory board.

Aside from Ayers, Perdue will have another powerful ally in Trump’s orbit: His first-cousin, U.S. Sen. David Perdue, an early supporter of the incoming president.

“Sonny’s background in business, his medical background, his executive background as a governor make him an ideal choice,” David Perdue said. “In fact, I think he may be the best choice I know in America to be in that ag position.”</s>US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday nominated former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue to be his agriculture secretary, rounding out his cabinet picks.

The following is a list of key cabinet and other nominations made by Trump, who takes office on Friday.

The silver-haired president and CEO of ExxonMobil, who has never worked in government, could face a difficult confirmation battle due to his close ties to Russia's Vladimir Putin. Tillerson has spent his entire career at Exxon, working his way up from being a production engineer to running the massive company.

The Wall Street veteran was a partner at Goldman Sachs before he launched an investment fund backed by Democratic Party supporter George Soros and financed Hollywood blockbusters like "Avatar" and "Suicide Squad."

A retired four star Marine general, Mattis commanded US forces in the Middle East and Southwest Asia from 2010 to 2013, capping a career as a combat commander that earned him the nickname "Mad Dog." A scholar of warfare, he is said to have a particular interest in the challenge posed by Iran. To become secretary of defense, Mattis needs a congressional waiver from a law that bars generals from serving as defense secretary for seven years after leaving active duty.

One of Trump's earliest campaign supporters, the anti-immigration senator from Alabama has a much criticized record on race relations and was once denied a judgeship amid concerns over past comments about African Americans. The attorney general heads the department of justice.

The retired Marine general most recently led the US Southern Command, which covers US military operations in Central and South America. He is expected to be very tough on illegal immigration and the illicit drugs trade. He also has been shaped by the death of his son, a Marine, in Afghanistan in 2010.

A US investor and billionaire, Ross is best known for buying failing steel and coal firms and selling them for profit. He was once known as the "king of bankruptcy" for his history of investing in such businesses.

A wealthy activist and Republican megadonor from Michigan, DeVos is a champion of alternatives to local government schools, backing a movement that advocates the use of tax credits and vouchers to allow parents to opt out of the public school system.

The former Texas governor, a onetime rival of Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, once vowed to eliminate the department he has now been asked to run. Perry, a US Air Force veteran who grew up in a farming family, took part this autumn in the latest season of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

The Georgia lawmaker and former orthopedic surgeon is a robust critic of President Barack Obama's signature health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, which has provided health coverage to 20 million Americans.

The retired neurosurgeon and onetime rival to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination is so far the only African American named to Trump's cabinet. The religious conservative with no experience in elective office, who grew up poor in Detroit, will be tasked with turning around America's troubled inner cities.

The fifth-generation Montana native and former Navy SEAL currently serves as a congressman, with a spot on the House Committee on Natural Resources. In nominating him, Trump said Zinke supports the "multiple-use" management of federal lands for economic, recreational and conservational purposes.

The chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which owns fast food chains Carl's Jr and Hardee's, is opposed to raising the national minimum wage. He also backs the increasing use of automated technology to keep labor costs down.

The Taiwan-born Chao served as deputy secretary of transportation in the 1980s, and was later US labor secretary under president George W. Bush. She is the first Asian-American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet and is the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Perdue, the former governor of Georgia, is a veterinarian by training who was a small business owner and also spent a decade as a state senator.

Shulkin is the only cabinet holdover from the current administration, in which he serves as undersecretary of health for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He previously worked as chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania health system.

Head of the Republican National Committee, Priebus is a seasoned political operative who can build bridges between Trump and a skittish Republican leadership, particularly House Speaker Paul Ryan, a longtime ally.

The attorney general for the state of Oklahoma is a known climate change skeptic and an ally of the fossil fuel industry. Before accepting the nomination, Pruitt spent much time battling the agency he is tapped to lead.

As South Carolina's governor, Haley rose to prominence when she led efforts for the divisive Confederate flag to be pulled from the state's capitol following a 2015 massacre at a historic black church in Charleston. The daughter of Indian immigrants was sharply critical of Trump during the election campaign.

The wrestling tycoon and two-time Republican candidate for the US Senate from Connecticut, will now be responsible for supporting America's 28 million small businesses, which employ around half the country's private-sector workforce.

A key figure in Trump's victorious election campaign, Bannon served as executive chairman of conservative news platform Breitbart, a favorite news source of the so-called "alt-right," an offshoot conservative movement that embraces a mixture of populism, racism and white nationalism. His appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, has been controversial.

A top military counsel to Trump, the retired three-star general, a veteran of America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has courted controversy with extreme statements that critics say border on Islamophobia, but has taken a more flexible line on Russia and China. The national security advisor is not formally part of the cabinet but is usually one of the president's most influential advisors.

A strident critic of the Iran nuclear deal, the hawkish Kansas congressman was elected in 2010 to the House of Representatives, where he was a member of the hardline Tea Party faction and one of the leaders of the controversial Benghazi Committee that targeted Trump's Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton.

A former commissioner and chairman of the Federal Election Commission, McGahn represents "elected officials, candidates, national state parties, political consultants, and others on political law issues," as a partner at the Jones Day law firm in Washington.</s>Donald Trump’s administration has already cleared a semi-historic hurdle, although it’s probably not one to brag about. His cabinet will be the first one in nearly 30 years (since the Reagan years) not to include a Latino member. The revelation comes as Trump reportedly appointed former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue for agriculture secretary, which was the last open cabinet position.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the situation has been overblown, and he argued that Trump picked his cabinet members based on their merits, as reported by The Hill. He went on to say that with 5,000 positions in the White House, Trump will likely include some employees from the Hispanic community.

Still, some groups are not pleased. Hector Sanchez, chairman of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, said the absence of a Latino cabinet member does not bode well:

“We’re extremely worried. This is anti-democratic. Trump has not only been the most anti-Latino, anti-immigrant president in the history of the nation, [but] by not including Latinos in his Cabinet he is just showing how he plans to govern.”

A different perspective has arrived from the (conservative) Hispanic Leadership Fund’s Mario Lopez, who told Washington Post that he was relieved that Trump wasn’t simply filling a “quota”: “I don’t believe in quotas or identity politics. The president, at the end, should appoint someone he feels comfortable with, regardless of their race or ethnicity.”

Intentional or not, Trump’s omission of Latinos in his cabinet may be seen as correlating with his anti-immigration views, which were well known since he first mentioned the Wall.</s>(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — President-elect Donald Trump’s decision not to appoint any Latinos to his Cabinet is drawing fierce criticism from Hispanics, who call it a major setback for the nation’s largest minority group.

Trump announced former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on Thursday as his choice to lead the Agriculture Department, ending hopes that the last open spot would go to a Latino nominee. The lack of Latino appointments means no Hispanic will serve in a president’s Cabinet for the first time in nearly three decades.

“I never thought I would see this day again,” said Henry Cisneros, Housing secretary under President Bill Clinton. “There are multiple, multiple talented people, from heads of corporations to superintendents, he could have selected. There really is no excuse.”



The nonpartisan National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials had started a public campaign to convince Trump to nominate former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, a Republican, to the Agriculture post.

“This is a disaster and setback for the country,” NALEO executive director Arturo Vargas said. “The next time a president convenes his Cabinet there will be no Latino perspective.”

The move also drew condemnation from the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s oldest Hispanic civil rights organization.

“Trump has broken with the bipartisan precedent of past presidential administrations and has missed a major opportunity to shed the racial and ethnic divisiveness that were hallmarks of his presidential campaign,” LULAC National Executive Director Brent Wilkes said.

Hilda Solis, who served as Labor secretary under President Barack Obama, said Trump’s failure to select any Latino nominees is “more than an oversight.”

“I don’t think he forgot to appoint a Hispanic. That’s unfortunate,” Solis said.

Solis said having Hispanics in the Cabinet is important because they often step out of their department roles to offer different perspectives. “I did that often,” she said. “Especially on immigration and health care.”

Newly elected Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., the nation’s first Latina senator, called Trump’s lack of Latino appointments, “beyond disappointing,” especially after he ran “a divisive campaign that often demonized the Latino community.”

But New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican and the nation’s only Latina governor, brushed off the appointment complaints.

“The president-elect gets to choose whomever he wants to choose for his Cabinet,” said Martinez, who openly clashed with Trump during the presidential campaign. “Even though I’m a female Hispanic, I have always said that the person who has the greatest merit and who is the best and brightest should hold those positions.”

For most of the nation’s history, Hispanics have played informal, yet largely small roles in advising U.S. presidents. For example, Francisco Perea served as a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico and was a close friend of President Abraham Lincoln. He was seated near the president’s box at Ford’s Theatre when Lincoln was assassinated.

Latinos began pressing for more visible representation in the executive branch shortly after World War II and the return of Mexican-American veterans.

Medal of Honor recipient Macario Garcia took a low-level position in the Veterans Administration at the urging of activists and President Harry Truman. Providencia Paredes and Carlos McCormick served as close aides to President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jackie Kennedy. They advised the couple on how to reach out to Latino voters in the 1960 campaign, when new Mexican-American voters helped swing a close election.

Dr. Hector P. Garcia, a Texas physician and another WWII veteran, was tapped by President Lyndon Johnson as the alternate ambassador to the United Nations to push better relations with Latin America. Later, President Jimmy Carter nominated Houston activist Leonel Castillo as commissioner of immigration.

A Latino finally was appointed to a Cabinet position in 1988, at the tail end of President Ronald Reagan’s second term. Lauro Cavazos, a Democrat, was confirmed as Education secretary and continued to serve for part of President George H.W. Bush’s term.

Since then Latinos have had a presence in Democratic and Republican administrations from Surgeon General Antonia Novello, under Bush, to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, under Obama.

Former Energy secretary and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, whose mother was from Mexico, said the lack of appointments by Trump is telling.

“It is deeply disappointing that the president-elect is ignoring the fastest growing and economically dynamic community in the country,” Richardson said. “Maybe it is payback for his dismal showing with Latinos in the general election.”

Edward Lujan, a former chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico and brother of former Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr., said he also was disappointed there won’t be any Hispanics in Trump’s early Cabinet.

“But there are still 4,000 positions that have to be filled, some undersecretaries,” Lujan said. “So, I think some Hispanics will get those.”</s>President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to serve as Agriculture Secretary, two transition officials said Wednesday, completing his cabinet appointments as he prepares for his inauguration on Friday.

The announcement ends a search that played out in public view, with Mr. Trump interviewing a raft of candidates before settling on Mr. Perdue, a Republican who served on his campaign’s agricultural...</s>President-elect Donald Trump will officially nominate former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to be secretary of agriculture Thursday, a senior transition source told Fox News.

The nomination was expected to be announced by Vice President-elect Mike Pence during a press briefing with incoming White House Press secretary Sean Spicer Thursday morning.

Perdue, who in 2002 became the first Republican to be elected Georgia governor in 130 years, had long been considered the favorite to head the Agriculture Department in a Trump administration, with one source describing him to Fox News earlier this month as a "lock" for the position.

Perdue, 70, would be the first Southerner to lead the Agriculture Department in more than two decades. He comes from the small city of Bonaire in rural central Georgia, where he built businesses in grain trading and trucking. He is the cousin of Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga.

During Perdue's tenure as governor, Georgia adopted tough new food-safety regulations after a deadly U.S. salmonella outbreak was traced to Georgia-made peanut butter. He moved the state office that issues water permits for irrigation and other agricultural uses from Atlanta to rural south Georgia, where it would be closer to farmers. And Perdue poured millions of state dollars into Go Fish, a program that aimed to lure bass fishing tournaments to the state.

Perdue's nomination rounds out Trump's Cabinet choices. Sources told Fox News that the transition team wanted to complete the nominations by Friday.

Senate Republicans are pressing Democrats to allow confirmation votes for several of Trump's nominees on Friday evening, hours after he is inaugurated as the 45th president. Among those expected to be considered by the full Senate Friday are Defense Secretary nominee James Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary nominee John Kelly and Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., for CIA Director.

Fox News' Ed Henry, John Roberts and Chad Pergram contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed to this report.</s>(CNN) President-elect Donald Trump picked the final member of his Cabinet on Wednesday, landing on former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to serve as agriculture secretary and in the process locking in an inaugural Cabinet devoid of any Latino representation.

Trump will name Perdue to head the Agriculture Department on Thursday, a transition official told CNN on Wednesday. The other top contender for the post was former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, who is Hispanic.

The announcement will seal the makeup of Trump's inaugural Cabinet should all of his nominees be confirmed by the Senate.

Only two of Trump's Cabinet appointees are ethnic minorities: Ben Carson, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development is black and his choice for transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, is Asian. Trump also tapped Nikki Haley, the Indian-American governor of South Carolina, to serve as UN ambassador, which is a Cabinet-rank post, but not an official member of the Cabinet.

Latinos have served in Cabinet positions in every presidential administration since 1988.

Read More</s>Former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue speaks to the media in the lobby of Trump Tower, November 30, 2016 in New York, after meetings with US President-elect Donald Trump. / AFP / Bryan R. Smith (Photo credit should read BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images)

President-elect Donald Trump picked former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday to be his agriculture secretary, tapping a veterinarian-turned-politician who was the state’s first Republican governor in more than a century to lead the sprawling department.

Perdue, 70, had emerged as Trump’s leading contender to run the agriculture department in recent days, and he is said to have impressed the New York businessman with his experience in public office and in the private sector.

The announcement could come as soon as Thursday.

Perdue becomes the second Georgian selected to join Trump’s Cabinet after U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Roswell was tapped as health secretary.

And Trump went down to the wire with the Perdue pick, making him his last Cabinet selection before he is sworn into office Friday. The choice was mired in political wrangling, with some factions pushing Trump to opt for someone from the Midwest or to diversify his Cabinet by naming a Hispanic official.

If confirmed, Perdue would become the new head of the $140 billion agency, which dictates the nation’s farm policy and also oversees the food stamp program. He would be the first agriculture secretary from a Southern state since Mike Espy of Mississippi headed the department in the early 1990s.

Perdue has been tight-lipped about the drawn-out process, but he interviewed with Trump on Nov. 30 and enthusiastically sought the job.

“He asked me what my skills sets were and I told him what they were, aside from having been governor, as a business person and primarily in agricultural commodities, trading domestically and internationally,” Perdue told reporters after that meeting. “And he lit up.”

His onetime protege, Nick Ayers, played a key role in helping both Perdue and Price land Cabinet posts. Now a top aide to Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Trump’s transition team, Ayers cut his political teeth on Perdue’s 2002 campaign and has been a longtime aide to the former governor.

“Georgia walks away with two of the most consequential Cabinet secretaries who happen to be the two most qualified for the job,” said Ayers, who is married to a cousin of Perdue’s and was a finalist to lead the Republican National Committee. “It’s a testament to the president’s extraordinary decision making and his appreciation to Georgia.”

A native of Perry, Georgia, Perdue helped craft the state’s agriculture policy in the 1990s as a Democratic state senator from Houston County before switching to the GOP in 1998.

His surprise victory over Gov. Roy Barnes in 2002 – making him Georgia’s first GOP governor since Reconstruction – triggered a Republican wave in Georgia that flipped the state Senate and then the state House. Georgia Republicans now control every statewide office in Georgia.

As governor, he carved out a reliably conservative record that included legislation aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration and creating new photo ID requirements for Georgia voters.

He also oversaw Georgia’s decades-long water dispute with Alabama and Florida and the state’s response to an epic drought that prompted him to call for stiff water restrictions. At the height of the drought in 2007, he joined with other state officials on the statehouse steps to lead a solemn prayer for rain that drew national headlines.

He attracted scrutiny for using taxpayer money to build the Go Fish Education Center near his home in Bonaire, Georgia. The facility has attracted about one-fifth of the visitors expected to use the facility and the state still owes at least $12 million for the project, which the New York Times dubbed a “symbol of waste” when it opened.

Since leaving office in 2011, Perdue has run a string of trucking, agriculture and logistics firms from his base in Middle Georgia – role that helped him appeal to Trump.

He was not always an enthusiastic Trump supporter - he initially endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and then former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush - but he stumped for Trump across Georgia in the final months of his campaign and served on the president-elect’s agriculture advisory board.

Aside from Ayers, Perdue will have another powerful ally in Trump’s orbit: His first-cousin, U.S. Sen. David Perdue, an early supporter of the incoming president.

“Sonny’s background in business, his medical background, his executive background as a governor make him an ideal choice,” David Perdue said. “In fact, I think he may be the best choice I know in America to be in that ag position.”</s>Via the DMN: Trump Cabinet will be the first in decades without a Hispanic member

Donald Trump’s Cabinet is poised to become the first since 1988 without any Hispanic officials — sparking rebukes from members of the nation’s second-largest ethnic group — as Trump tapped former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue for agriculture secretary.

This is not especially surprising. It does strike me that it is just another example of the Republican Party’s ongoing failure to reach out to a significant portion of the population.

In general, the cabinet is not especially diverse, as it is dominated by white males, which is also not surprising. The exceptions being:

Asked about the dearth of Hispanics in the Cabinet, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer called it more important to pick people who can do the jobs well. “He has continued to seek out the best and the brightest to fill out his Cabinet,” Spicer said Wednesday. “We have 5,000 positions and I think you’re going to see a very strong presence of the Hispanic community” among senior administration appointments and White House staff. “I don’t have any concern about diversity,” he said.
Former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue is named Secretary of Agriculture, the last open seat in Trump's cabinet.