Trump Picks Herschel Walker to Be Ambassador to the Bahamas

President-elect Donald J. Trump selected Herschel Walker on Tuesday to be the U.S. ambassador to the small Caribbean nation of the Bahamas, turning to a longtime ally and former football star who generated national headlines in his failed run for a Senate seat in Georgia in 2022.

In a statement on social media, Mr. Trump highlighted Mr. Walker’s athletic record as qualifying him for the position, in addition to a role in the first Trump administration as a co-chairman of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition and speaking appearances discussing mental health issues.

“Herschel has spent decades serving as an ambassador to our nation’s youth, our men and women in the military, and athletes at home and abroad,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Walker rose to the national political stage in 2022 after he was handpicked by Mr. Trump to challenge Senator Raphael Warnock for his Senate seat in Georgia. A political neophyte buoyed by his football stardom, Mr. Walker ran a campaign shadowed by incendiary statements and damaging revelations about his personal life and business career. Mr. Warnock ultimately defeated Mr. Walker even as Republicans won every other statewide race.

Mr. Walker’s relationship with Mr. Trump stretches back to the early 1980s, when the football star joined the New Jersey Generals, a United States Football League team then owned by Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump wrote in his book “The Art of the Deal” that he would berate the team’s coach for not properly using Mr. Walker’s talents. Nearly 40 years later, Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Walker early in the Senate campaign, despite concerns from some Republicans about Mr. Walker’s personal history, clearing a path through the primary for his failed challenge against Mr. Warnock.

Mr. Walker has no previous diplomatic experience, and no obvious ties to the Bahamas, an island nation of about 400,000 people just off the coast of Florida. That is not unusual for those appointed as ambassadors to smaller or less politically significant assignments, which often go to top donors, party officials, business leaders, star athletes or other high-profile figures. They are then usually supported in their overseas missions by career diplomats from the State Department.

The announcement also caps a run of potential appointments for Republicans who lost recent Senate races in Georgia. Former Senator Kelly Loeffler, who was unseated by Mr. Warnock, was picked to run the Small Business Administration. And former Senator David Perdue, who lost his seat to Senator Jon Ossoff, was selected to be ambassador to China.

The United States has not had a permanent ambassador to the Bahamas in over a decade, with several nominees stuck in limbo because the Senate never acted on their appointments. Both of Mr. Trump’s nominees for ambassador to the Bahamas in his first term stalled out. President Biden’s pick for the job, Calvin Smyre, was announced in May 2022. Two and a half years later, no action has been taken on Mr. Smyre’s nomination.