Arrival in Luxembourg could be months away as US Senate considers Biden's choice
US President Joe Biden has nominated the mayor of the largest city in the politically important state of Wisconsin as his government's next ambassador to Luxembourg.
Tom Barrett has been the mayor of Milwaukee for 15 years and could move to the Grand Duchy later this year depending how long lawmakers in the US Senate take to review his record and approve Biden's nomination. The White House announced his nomination on Wednesday.
"I will bring the values of our community to this new posting - values we share such as hard work, honesty and caring for others," Barrett said during a press conference in Milwaukee on Wednesday.
Barrett, 67, is one of the most influential politicians in the politically divided state where voters narrowly backed Biden last year and gave him a crucial victory that allowed him to claim the presidency. Unlike most European countries, US ambassadors are commonly selected based on their political or financial connections to the current president rather than their foreign policy expertise.
Former US Ambassador to Luxembourg Randy Evans, a long-time Republican lawyer and political operative, was appointed by former President Donald Trump and resigned his post in January as Trump left office.
Barrett spent 10 years representing Wisconsin in the lower chamber of the US Congress before becoming Milwaukee's mayor in 2004.
Wisconsin is one of the few American states with ties of immigration to Luxembourg, as well as the German and Scandinavian settlers that made its politics friendly toward socialism to a degree unusual in the country. The village of Luxemburg, with about 2,600 residents, is about 190 km north of Milwaukee while nearby is the town of Belgium, home to the Luxembourg American Cultural Society.
"The town of Belgium was originally started by Luxembourgers who were Luxembergish in culture and language, but technically were from the country of Belgium," the cultural society's museum curator, Serena Stuettgen, told Milwaukee TV station WTMJ.
Milwaukee has about 590,000 residents, nearly as many as all of Luxembourg. It is located near Chicago on the western shore of Lake Michigan, one of the region's Great Lakes. Its German heritage made the city one of the beer capitals of the United States and is the home of motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson.