Trump Picks Fox Host Sean Duffy as Next Secretary of Transportation

Then-Rep. Sean Duffy, 2017 (Adam Fagen / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Sean Duffy, a former congressman from Wisconsin and a prominent Fox News host, as his next secretary of transportation. The post has authority over the U.S. Maritime Administration, including the National Defense Reserve Fleet, the Maritime Security Program and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

Like President Trump, Duffy got his start in public life on reality television, appearing on MTV's The Real World and Road Rules in 1997, 1998 and 2002. He met his future wife, fellow Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, during his second season on MTV in 1998.

Duffy completed law school at William Mitchell College of Law and was appointed district attorney for Ashland County, Wisconsin in 2002, a post he held until he began his first campaign for Congress in 2010. He served for nine years in the House of Representatives, focusing his efforts on financial regulation in the House Committee on Financial Services. He resigned in 2019, citing a need to take care of his ninth child, a newborn daughter who had a serious heart condition.

After departing Congress, Duffy was hired by CNN as a contributor, but transferred to Fox News Media. He is currently the host of "The Bottom Line" on Fox Business.

Duffy has no prominent experience related to transportation in his biography. However, he has encountered maritime affairs at least once before. In 2016, he was active on the Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth in Puerto Rico, a specially-appointed committee on reforming Puerto Rico's finances. In August 2016, as part of that effort, Duffy considered proposals to suspend the Jones Act transport requirement for the island province, Reuters reported at the time. "We have to come up with solutions that help the Puerto Rico people," Duffy told Reuters. "It's incumbent upon Republicans to engage on this issue."

On August 15, 2016, four congressmen - Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), John Garamendi (D-CA), J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) and Joe Courtney (D-CT) - wrote to Rep. Duffy and his fellow Task Force members to ask them to leave the Jones Act out of their review. The Task Force appears to have complied, and the Jones Act did not appear in its final report.