President-elect Donald Trump has asked freshman Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke to be secretary of the interior, an unnamed source on the transition team and someone familiar with the cabinet offer told Politico.
Zinke, an early supporter of Trump, spoke with the president-elect at Trump Tower Monday, and said the two spoke about priorities for his home state of Montana.
“President-elect Donald Trump and I had a very positive meeting where we discussed a wide range of Montana priorities. We are both hopeful for the future,” Zinke told reporters after the meeting.
Zinke was elected to Congress in 2014, and if he accepts the position to lead the Department of the Interior, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, would have to replace him with one of three names provided from by the Montana GOP while the state held a special election to fill the seat, state Sen. Jeff Essmann, chairman of the Montana Republican Party told the Flathead Beacon.
“On energy, I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy – including shale energy and clean coal – creating many millions of high-paying jobs,” Trump said in a video last week.
Last week, it was widely reported that Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers would be nominated for interior secretary, again according to unnamed transition sources.
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