The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed
Rick Grenell to serve as ambassador to Germany.
President Donald Trump nominated
Grenell to the post in September.
Grenell's confirmation makes him the
most high-profile openly gay appointee in the Trump administration.
Senate members voted mostly along party
lines, with 56 senators in favor and 42 opposed.
According to the Washington
Blade, six Democrats – Senators Joe Donnelly of Indiana,
Doug Jones of Alabama, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of
West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana and Claire McCaskill of Missouri
– joined all Republicans present in voting for Grenell's
confirmation.
Grenell served as a US spokesman at the
United Nations during former President George W. Bush's
administration. He worked on Arizona Senator John McCain's
unsuccessful presidential campaign. In 2012, he joined the
presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, serving as the Republican
nominee's foreign policy spokesman, but resigned less than two weeks
later amid growing pressure from social conservatives over his sexual
orientation. He currently appears on Fox News Channel as a foreign
affairs commentator and was one of the president's earliest foreign
policy supporters.
According to The
Atlantic, Grenell, 50, has been in a 15-year relationship
with Matt Lashley, a graduate from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University
who, like Grenell, identifies as a conservative Christian.
Grenell is also a cancer survivor,
beating a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2013.