Morgan Ortagus
Morgan Deann Ortagus is an American diplomat, intelligence analyst, political advisor, naval officer, and former television commentator serving as deputy special presidential envoy to the Middle East since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as spokesperson for the United States Department of State from 2019 to 2021.
Ortagus began her career in government as a deputy attaché and intelligence analyst at the United States Department of the Treasury and later as a public affairs officer at USAID. She worked as a national security contributor at Fox News until her appointment as State Department spokesperson. Since 2014, Ortagus has been an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve.
During her time at the State Department, Ortagus 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.
Ortagus 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. She 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.
Early life and education
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. An identical twin, she grew up in Florida and won the Miss Auburndale, Miss Teen Auburndale, 2003 Miss Florida Citrus, and Miss Orange Blossom titles. Ortagus volunteered with Students Against Destructive Decisions and Mothers Against Drunk Driving after her mentor was killed by a drunk driver in 1996.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 and converted to Judaism.
In 2013, Ortagus graduated from Johns Hopkins University with both a Master of Arts in Government degree and a Master of Business Administration from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. Ortagus' research at JHU included an honors thesis on counterinsurgency.
Career
Political campaigns
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.Ortagus was a volunteer on the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign.
United States Agency for International Development
From 2007 to 2008, Ortagus was a public affairs officer at United States Agency for International Development, spending several months in Baghdad, Iraq. She attended a Hanukkah ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in Baghdad.United States Department of the Treasury
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.
Private sector
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, where she helped found EY's Geostrategic Business Group working on geopolitical risk analysis for investors.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.
Military service
In 2014, Ortagus was commissioned as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve. In April 2025, she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander, sworn in by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the White House.United States Department of State
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.Return to private sector
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 2021.2022 congressional campaign
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." Politico forecasted a competitive Republican primary, with some frequent Trump allies backing other candidates.Following Trump's endorsement, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill on March 29 to require congressional candidates live in the district they represented, and to have lived in the state for the three years prior. If signed by the governor, the law's provisions would have taken immediate effect, disqualifying Ortagus. The Tennessean reported that the bill targeted Ortagus' candidacy. Instead, Governor Bill Lee allowed the bill to become law unsigned, but only after the congressional filing deadline had passed; as the law's requirements were not retroactive, it did not apply to Ortagus' campaign.
On April 19, the Tennessee Republican Party's executive committee removed Ortagus and two other candidates from the primary ballot for the 5th district. The party stated that official challenges had been filed against the three, obligating their removal from the ballot per party bylaws. On June 10, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the Republican Party had not violated open meetings laws, thus keeping the three off the ballot. Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles won the Republican primary on August 4.
U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Middle East Peace
On January 3, 2025, then-President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to appoint Ortagus as deputy special presidential envoy for Middle East peace, under United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, during his second administration. On February 7, she met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, emphasizing U.S. opposition to Hezbollah's role in Lebanon's government, stating it "won't be able to terrorize the Lebanese people." However, the Lebanese presidency downplayed her remarks.Ortagus left her post as US deputy envoy to the Mideast on June 15, 2025.
US Mission to the United Nations
After serving as deputy Mideast envoy, Ortagus became a senior policy adviser at the US Mission to the United Nations. This was an extension of a national security team shakeup in which Mike Waltz moved from national security adviser to US ambassador to the UN.Political positions
China
In July 2020, Ortagus said that blame rested with both political parties "for almost 40 years for not seeing the Chinese Communist Party for who they really are," and stressed the need for American citizens not to trust Chinese social media and technology companies that seek to access private data of U.S. citizens. She welcomed moves by U.S. social media companies not to allow the Chinese government to access their data.In August 2019, Ortagus called the Chinese government a "thuggish regime" for harassing a Hong Kong-based American diplomat. She has condemned the Chinese government's treatment of workers in Xinjiang, China as well as their detention and indoctrination of Uyghur and other religious and ethnic minorities, and called on the CCP to end the use of forced labor. In May 2020, Ortagus said that China was "breaking its word 27 years early" regarding its imposition of a new national security law in Hong Kong and was "taking over the largest financial hub in Asia."