Additional USDA Candidates Surface

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President-elect Donald Trump will meet today with former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado to discuss filling the president-elect’s open Agriculture Secretary position, a transition official said.

Trump will meet with two potential agriculture secretaries today: Maldonado and Elsa Murano, a former president of Texas A&M University, transition spokesman Sean Spicer said during a morning conference call. Murano’s meeting was previously announced.

Appointed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maldonado served as California’s lieutenant governor from April 2010 to January 2011 before losing his election bid to stay in the position.

Maldonado is co-owner of the 1,000-acre, Santa Maria, Calif.-based Runway Vineyards, which he founded with his daughter, according to the company’s website.

Meanwhile, an Iowa farmer said she is interested in the USDA Cabinet post. Annette Sweeney of Alden, Iowa, was one of the original members of then-candidate Trump’s ag and rural advisory committee. In recent days, some other members of that committee have suggested to the Trump transition team that they give Sweeney an interview.

NOTE: This column is copyrighted material; therefore reproduction or retransmission is prohibited under U.S. copyright laws.