Morgan Ortagus

Morgan Deann Ortagus (born July 10, 1982) is an American television commentator, financial analyst, and political advisor who served as spokesperson for the United States Department of State from 2019 to 2021 during the Trump administration.

She previously held government positions as a deputy attaché and intelligence analyst at the United States Department of the Treasury and as a public affairs officer at USAID.

Ortagus worked as national security contributor at Fox News prior to her appointment as State Department spokesperson.

She is an officer in the United States Navy Reserve.

During her time at the State Department, she was critical of Iran and China, particularly over the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to shift blame to the United States for the COVID-19 pandemic.

She played a key role in the Abraham Accords.

She is the founder of POLARIS National Security, co-chair of the Women's Democracy Network at the International Republican Institute, and a member of the board of advisors for the China Center at Hudson Institute.

Ortagus was a candidate for Tennessee's 5th congressional district in the 2022 election, but was disqualified by the Tennessee Republican Party despite her endorsement by President Donald Trump.

Ortagus was born in Auburndale, Florida to Ronald E. and Denise C. Ortagus.

Her father owned a cleanup and restoration company, and her mother was the office manager.

Ortagus volunteered with Students Against Destructive Decisions and Mothers Against Drunk Driving after her mentor was killed by a drunk driver in 1996.

She grew up in Florida and won the Miss Florida Citrus title in 2003.

In 2005, Ortagus, a first-generation college student, graduated from Florida Southern College with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science.

Originally interested in studying music, she switched her major to political science after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2006, Ortagus worked as press secretary on former Deputy National Security Advisor K. T. McFarland's Senate campaign.

Prior to that, she worked on Adam Putnam's campaign staff.

From 2007 to 2008, Ortagus was a public affairs officer at United States Agency for International Development (USAID), spending several months in Baghdad, Iraq.

She attended a Hanukkah ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in Baghdad.

In 2008, Ortagus joined the U.S. Treasury Department, working as an intelligence analyst within the Treasury's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, covering North Africa and the Middle East.

Ortagus was a deputy Treasury attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia starting in 2010.

She worked to counter illicit financial flows and was the principal liaison from the Treasury Department to the banking sector in Saudi Arabia.

She returned to the United States in 2011.

In 2013, Ortagus graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a Master of Arts degree and a Master of Business Administration from the Carey Business School.

Ortagus's research at JHU included work on counterinsurgency.

In 2013, she was the vice president of the board of the Friends of the Public Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan, based in Washington.

Ortagus worked as national security contributor and Republican strategist at the Fox News Channel, appearing on Fox & Friends, Outnumbered, The Five and Mornings with Maria on the Fox Business Network.

Ortagus and Samantha Vinograd co-founded GO Advisors, a geopolitical risk and policy advisory firm that focused on bridging divides between Wall Street and Silicon Valley with the White House and U.S. Treasury Department.

Ortagus was on the National Board of Directors of Maverick PAC as National Co-Chair.

The organization's co-founder said that Ortagus "turned the organization really into a new frontier."

She was also a member of the CNAS Council and Future of Sanctions Task Force, a member of the Institute for the Study of War's Advancement Committee, a board member to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, a board member to the Friends of the American University of Afghanistan, and an advisor to Concordia where she contributed to the strategic direction and development of the organization's foreign and defense policy programming.

Ortagus was a volunteer on the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign.

After returning to the United States, Ortagus joined the private sector, first as global relationship manager at Standard Chartered Bank working with clients from Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and then in 2016 as executive director at Ernst & Young (EY), where she helped found EY's Geostrategic Business Group working on geopolitical risk analysis for investors.

Ortagus returned to government in 2019 as Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, succeeding Heather Nauert.

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin described Ortagus as a bridge between the establishment and more conservative wings of the Republican foreign policy communities, and wrote that she was friends with Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump.

She served until the end of the Trump administration, going on maternity leave in November 2020.

During her tenure, she promoted the Abraham Accords, which brokered peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan.

Post-government, Ortagus was a Senior Advisor for the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, but left by March 2022.

She also is a founding investor of Rubicon Founders, a health-care investment firm based in Nashville, Tennessee, in February 2021.

On February 7, 2022, Ortagus announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for Tennessee's 5th congressional district.

Two weeks prior, former President Donald Trump endorsed Ortagus for a potential congressional run, saying that "I am told the very strong and impressive Morgan Ortagus is exploring a run in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District."