President Trump nominated Texas Republican Representative Wesley Hunt to become U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a position that has remained vacant since Trump began his second term in January 2025. The Senate must confirm the nomination. Hunt is not seeking re-election to the House after an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate and previously served as a U.S. Army officer, including deployments to Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as two years as a diplomatic liaison in the kingdom. The 44-year-old represents Texas’s 38th Congressional District and finished third in the state’s March Senate GOP primary, which Ken Paxton won in a runoff against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Jennifer Larson, a Foreign Service officer, has led the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh on an interim basis since mid-August, succeeding Alison Dilworth, after Michael Ratney left at the end of the Biden administration. Hunt’s nomination comes as months of war on Iran have raised fears of a wider conflict and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have launched attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Trump administration is also pursuing closer ties with Riyadh, including a proposed 30-year nuclear cooperation agreement tied to Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel. Trump and his family have business ties to Saudi Arabia, and he maintains a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom U.S. intelligence said approved the 2018 operation that resulted in journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.