Samuel Dale Brownback is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as a United States senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011 and as the 46th governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party, Brownback also served as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom during the administration of President Donald Trump and was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2008.
The Religious Action Center (RAC) is the political and legislative outreach arm of Reform Judaism in the United States. The Religious Action Center is operated under the auspices of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, a joint instrumentality of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism. It was founded in 1961.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress.
Denise Campbell Bauer is an American diplomat serving as the United States ambassador to France and Monaco. Bauer served as Ambassador of the United States to Belgium from 2013 to 2017. After being nominated by President Barack Obama, she was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on August 2, 2013; she was sworn in the following August 7. She left office on January 20, 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the executive director of Women for Biden.
Jacob Joseph Lew is an American attorney and diplomat serving as the United States ambassador to Israel. He was the seventy-sixth United States secretary of the treasury from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he also served as the twenty-fifth White House chief of staff from 2012 to 2013 and as director of the Office of Management and Budget in both the Clinton administration and Obama administration.
Michael Braverman Goodman Froman is an American lawyer who is the current president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Froman served as the U.S. Trade Representative from 2013 to 2017. He was Assistant to the President of the United States and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs, a position held jointly at the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. In that position he served as the United States sherpa to the G7, G8, and G20 summits of economic powers. On May 2, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated him to succeed Ambassador Ron Kirk as the U.S. Trade Representative. He was confirmed on June 19, 2013.
Barack Obama assumed office as the 44th president of the United States on January 20, 2009, and his term ended on January 20, 2017. The president has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
David Nathan Saperstein is an American rabbi, lawyer, and Jewish community leader who served as United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. He previously served as the director and chief legal counsel at the Union for Reform Judaism's Religious Action Center for more than 40 years.
Richard Rahul Verma is an American diplomat, who serves as the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, a position he has held since April 5, 2023. He served as the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs from 2009 to 2011, and as the U.S. ambassador to India from 2014 to 2017. He served as the chief legal officer and head of global public policy at Mastercard, from 2020 to 2023, and as the vice chair of the Asia Group from 2017 to 2020, where he oversaw the firm's South Asia practice. He also practiced law for many years at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington DC, and served as a Senior Counselor and Lead of the India and South Asia practice at Albright Stonebridge Group.
Jeffrey William Colyer is an American surgeon and politician who served as the 47th governor of Kansas from January 31, 2018, to January 14, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 49th lieutenant governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018. Colyer served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009 and the Kansas Senate from 2009 to 2011. He assumed the governorship when Sam Brownback resigned to become United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Colyer ran for a full term as governor in 2018, but narrowly lost the Republican primary to Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, who in turn lost the general election to Democratic nominee Laura Kelly.
The Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism is an office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights at the United States Department of State. The office "advances U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism" by developing and implementing policies and projects to support efforts to combat antisemitism.
Rashad Hussain is an American attorney, diplomat, and professor, who currently serves as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. He previously served as associate White House counsel, as U.S. Special Envoy of President Barack Obama to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the U.S. Special Envoy for strategic counterterrorism communications. Hussain has also served on the United States National Security Council and in the Department of Justice as a trial attorney and a criminal and national security prosecutor.
U.S. President Barack Obama nominated over 400 individuals for federal judgeships during his presidency. Of these nominations, Congress confirmed 329 judgeships, 173 during the 111th & 112th Congresses and 156 during the 113th and 114th Congresses.
Tulinabo Salama Mushingi is an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Angola and the United States ambassador to São Tomé and Príncipe from 2022 to 2024. He previously served as the United States ambassador to Burkina Faso from 2013 to 2016, and a joint appointment as United States ambassador to Senegal and United States ambassador to Guinea-Bissau from 2017 to 2022. He also served in the executive offices of Secretaries of State John F. Kerry and Hillary Clinton.
Noah Bryson Mamet is an American diplomat and businessman who served as the United States Ambassador to Argentina under U.S. President Barack Obama, serving from 2015 to 2017.
Azita Raji was an Iranian-born American diplomat, banker, and philanthropist. She was nominated by President Barack Obama in October 2014 to serve as the United States ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden, and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate in February 2016. She presented her credentials to King Carl XVI Gustaf on March 15, 2016, and completed her tour of duty on January 20, 2017.
Stafford Fitzgerald Haney is an American diplomat and businessman who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Costa Rica from 2015 to 2017. Haney was nominated as U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica by President Barack Obama on July 8, 2014, and was confirmed by the full Senate on May 23, 2015. He served until July 15, 2017, having been the only Obama-appointed political ambassador in the world allowed to stay under the Donald Trump administration.
Bridget Ann Brink is an American diplomat serving as the United States Ambassador to Ukraine. In April 2022, she was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the United States ambassador to Ukraine, and presented her credentials in May 2022. She previously served as the United States Ambassador to Slovakia from August 20, 2019, until May 18, 2022.
The 2008 presidential campaign of Sam Brownback, a U.S. Senator from Kansas, began on December 4, 2006, with the formation of an exploratory committee. Several weeks later on January 20, 2007, Brownback officially announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. Brownback had first been elected to the Senate in a special election in 1996, previously having been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was popular among social conservatives and positioned himself as a compassionate conservative, often using his Catholic faith to justify some of his policy positions. From the start of his announcement, media outlets noted that his candidacy was a long-shot and highly unlikely to succeed, and throughout the campaign, Brownback struggled with both fundraising and rising above single-digits in opinion polls.
