Who is Dave Brat, Trump’s nominee for US Ambassador to Australia?

A dozen years ago, Dr David Brat was a little-known economics professor who unexpectedly defeated a powerful and well-funded Republican congressional leader who had been expected to become the next Speaker of the House.

In April 2026, Brat became President Donald Trump’s nominee for US Ambassador to Australia.

Who is Dave Brat, and what does this mean for Australia?

The role

The position of US ambassador to Australia has sat vacant for 18 months since Caroline Kennedy left the role in December 2024. It is not unusual for the position to be held open for long periods at the start of a new presidency — Australia waited two years for the appointment of Trump’s first ambassador to Australia, Arthur Culvahouse, in 2019 and waited 18 months for Caroline Kennedy’s arrival during the Biden administration. However, while the role is often seen as a desirable post for a close ally of the president, President Trump reportedly struggled to find a nominee willing to live in Canberra.

The ambassador heads the US embassy in Canberra and plays an important role in both closed-door policy meetings with government as well as in public diplomacy designed to strengthen relations between Australia and the United States. Kennedy worked to secure support for AUKUS in US Congress and also famously joined the Shitbox Rally across Australia in 2024, while Culvahouse was strongly critical of China’s diplomacy in the Pacific.

Background

Historic breakthrough

Brat catapulted from relative obscurity as an economics professor to national prominence when he toppled Eric Cantor in the Republican primary race for Virginia’s 7th Congressional district in June 2014, one year before Donald Trump announced his campaign for president. Brat’s surprise defeat of Cantor — a seven-term incumbent who outspent Brat’s campaign 40-to-1— was branded as “one of the most stunning upsets in modern political history.” To this day, Brat remains the only primary challenger in US history to unseat a sitting House Majority Leader since the congressional position was formally established over a century ago in 1899.

Brat attends the Midlothian Rotary Club breakfast to speak to the press, 17 June 2014 in Richmond, Virginia. Brat beat Eric Cantor in the GOP primary for Virginia's 7th Congressional district. (Photo by Jay Paul/Getty Images)

Brat’s long-shot primary campaign focused on Cantor’s immigration record and “crony capitalism,” and was backed by right-wing media commentator Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News Network and the Tea Party movement. Brat argued that Cantor’s support for immigration “amnesty” hurt American wages and cost local jobs, and that the incumbent represented big business interests, notably through his support of the bailout legislation following the Global Financial Crisis. His economic populism during the campaign led one New Yorker journalist to describe Brat as the “Elizabeth Warren of the right” in 2014.

Conservative in Congress

Brat served two terms as “one of the most conservative lawmakers in Congress” and a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He sponsored 47 bills across his tenure, including to limit restrictions on offshore oil and gas leases, restrict immigration, propose a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget and to prevent testing on dogs by the Department of Veterans Affairs via the PUPPERS Act of 2017. While only one bill ultimately became law, Brat credited his election with ending a push for immigration reform under the Obama administration.

In 2017, Brat emphasised the primacy of Congress in lawmaking and criticised the Obama administration for executive overreach. GovTrack analysis ranked Brat as a highly conservative but relatively productive lawmaker in terms of introducing bills compared to his cohort in the 114th and 115th Congresses, with a particularly strong emphasis on proposing legislation related to government transparency, accountability and effectiveness.

Despite his hardline Tea Party backing, he expressed collegiality with his Capitol Hill political opponents, praising Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders as a “great guy,” as well as Democratic Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, and Republican House leaders John Boehner and Paul Ryan.

Brat and fellow Republicans as President Donald Trump delivers his address to a joint session of Congress on 28 February 2017. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Post-Congress career

After four years in Congress, Brat was narrowly defeated by the current Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger in the 2018 ‘Blue wave’ midterms — handing control of the district to Democrats for the first time in almost 50 years. During the campaign, Brat was criticised by media and some of his constituents for becoming “inaccessible” to his constituents during his time in Congress. Steve Bannon correctly predicted that the district would prove to be a bellwether for control of the House of Representatives that year.

In January 2019, Brat became Dean of the School of Business, and later Senior Vice President of Business Relations, at Liberty University in Virginia, ranked the most conservative university in the United States, where he has remained until his nomination as ambassador in April 2026. He guest hosted Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast in 2024, notably including the July 2024 episode in which Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts controversially said the United States was “in the process of the second American Revolution.”

Relationship with President Trump

Brat has been a supporter of President Trump since Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016. However, he directly mentioned President Trump only occasionally on his social media while in Congress and steered clear of tying himself to the president in a 2018 debate with Spanberger. In 2017, Brat claimed President Trump was being “ill-advised” and receiving “bad counsel” from “across the board” after the president criticised the House Freedom Caucus for failing to repeal Obamacare. Nevertheless, Brat picked up one of President Trump’s “total” endorsements in 2018 ahead of his ultimately unsuccessful congressional re-election bid.

Dave Brat and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the West Lawn of the US Capitol, during a rally against the Iran nuclear deal, 9 September 2015 in Washington DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Worldview

Religious economic scholarship

Brat's spiritual life has been central to his political career from the outset, with Brat holding a Bible verse in the air and proclaiming that “God acted through people on my behalf” following his shock primary win. Religion was also a feature of the legislation he introduced as a congressman. Brat holds a master’s degree in divinity and a doctorate in economics and was an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College prior to his involvement in politics. His academic work formed part of a wider research agenda into the relationship between religion and economics and argued for a merging of Christianity and capitalism on the basis that Protestant institutions are a key driver of economic growth.

From free market supporter to tariff defender

Brat has previously self-described as a “100 percent free-market-Milton-Friedman-Chicago-School-Hayek economist.” He was reportedly inspired to run for Congress in 2014 because of “his passion for the structure of government and belief in free markets” and perception that GOP leadership had abandoned “free market principles.” Following Brat’s surprising GOP primary win in 2014, he reiterated his belief that free trade offers a “win-win” that enriches the United States and its allies, including through repairing post-Second World War relations with “arch-enemies” Japan and Germany.

However, despite his previous fervour for free market capitalism, Brat defended President Trump’s tariffs in 2018, saying “there are two pieces: economics and geopolitics. It’s like chess... You’re doing geopolitics and the first move on the board is a tariff.” However, he called on the president to adopt “a targeted approach” to achieve the desired effect without setting off a full-blown trade war. Brat also argued that Americans benefited from re-negotiating NAFTA and that while tariffs on China would cause short-term harm, they would ultimately lead to "zero tariffs." Similarly, in 2025, Brat defended President Trump’s tariffs as a means to balance trade relations and support US manufacturing.

Brat speaking at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, United States on 4 March 2023. (Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Source: Getty

An economic lens on foreign policy

In late 2022, Brat argued that a hypothetical Chinese invasion of Taiwan would have "devastating" impacts on the United States but especially on China, saying “our economy is China’s economy” because China "[does not] have a consumer yet... or a middle class” and there is a “tight linkage” between the two powers but that “they need us more than we need them.” To counter China, Brat has argued that the United States and its allies must return to “Judeo-Christian” values of religion and a successful “cookbook” of free market policies. He also said that “globalism is coming to an end soon and that’s going to have a massive impact on China” because trade is integral to the Chinese economy.

In 2022, he argued that Ukraine should accept a Russian peace deal and said in November 2022 that Russia was “under attack.” Brat has argued that the European Union is unified around a “pro-socialist” agenda to build a “global empire” that abolishes the nation-state, and has criticised European energy policies, saying “Germany was flourishing until they went globalist with this new energy policy stuff.”

To-do list as ambassador

During his May 2026 confirmation hearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Brat lauded Australia as a US ally, saying that “few countries are as integral to US interests as Australia” and that “the US-Australia alliance is an essential pillar of regional stability and deterrence.” Brat named critical minerals and commercial diplomacy, defence cooperation and regional partnerships as his top priorities as incoming ambassador to Australia.

On critical minerals, Brat said he would focus on “fully executing” the “foundational” critical minerals agreement signed by President Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October 2025, and that “one of [his] main priorities” would be to convey “how important Australia is to [the United States]” because of Australian skills and capacity in rare earth element processing and refining. He also said he would partner with superannuation funds to grow Australian investment in the United States and build on the opening of the Australian market to US beef to create a “level playing field” for other US exports, given Australia is a “promising market.”

The “foundational” critical minerals framework signed by President Trump and Prime Minister Albanese in October 2025 will be a focus for Brat. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

On defence, Brat will seek to “further streamline defence trade controls” by working with Congress, and “ensure the mission moves full steam ahead on AUKUS,” which he described as critical to “security for the South Pacific.” He praised Australia’s investments in the US industrial base and argued it was incumbent on the United States to “step up and show that we’re all in” on AUKUS. Brat also praised Australia’s “comparative advantage in quantum computing” and artificial intelligence as potential areas for Pillar II cooperation in which other regional allies could become involved.

On regional partnerships, Brat said he wants to work “with Australia to build critical infrastructure, support private sector investment and deliver security assistance” to bolster the resilience of the Pacific Islands, given that the United States is a “Pacific nation” and the Australia-US alliance “maintains our edge in this vast strategic region.”

What happens next?

Before officially assuming the role, Brat needs to be formally confirmed by a US Senate majority. Ambassadors to Australia have historically not faced difficult paths to confirmation, and there is no indication that senators will seek to block Brat’s appointment following a largely mild-mannered bipartisan confirmation hearing, in which he was praised by Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine for doing a “good job” when in Congress.

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and shadow foreign affairs spokesman Ted O’Brien both welcomed Brat’s nomination. Given the possibility of a more unconventional appointment, Canberra is likely to be relieved to have a nominee with government experience and President Trump’s backing after a long waiting period.

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