President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday evening his nomination of outgoing Rep. Dan Bishop as deputy director for budget at the Office of Management and Budget.

It’s not a well-known position within presidential administrations. The agency was first created under former President Richard Nixon, and is intended to help presidents meet policy, budget, management and regulatory objectives, according to the White House’s website.

“I’m so honored to be nominated by President Trump to serve in the stellar OMB team led by (Russ Vought),” Bishop, a Waxhaw Republican, posted on social media shortly after Trump announced his nomination. “Much work to do to fight for and implement President Trump’s agenda. I’m ready to get down to it. Let’s go!”

Vought, who Bishop mentioned in his post, served as director of OMB during the last year of Trump’s first term and is nominated to do so again. He’s also a contributor to to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a set of policies that Democrats said during the election Trump would use to reshape the federal government.

Trump largely distanced himself from Project 2025 during his campaign, but has nominated several contributors to the policies for positions in his administration.

If Trump succeeds in getting the Senate to approve their nominations, Bishop would work under Vought.

“Dan has been a tireless fighter for our MAGA Movement in the House of Representatives on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees,” Trump wrote on social media. “Dan will implement my cost-cutting and deregulatory agenda across all Agencies and root out the Weaponized Deep State.”

In his own post, Vought echoed Trump’s warning to what they called the deep state, referring to civil servants or other officials who secretly manipulate government.

“Not having Dan Bishop in the fight was too much to contemplate!” he wrote. “Thankful that President Trump chose him to be OMB Deputy! Look out Deep State.”

Bishop’s career

Bishop has served three terms in Congress, but chose not to seek reelection in 2024 to instead focus on a race for attorney general. Had Bishop won, he would have been the first Republican to serve as North Carolina’s top law enforcement official in more than a century.

Bishop, however, lost the attorney general race to Rep. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat from Charlotte, who chose not to seek reelection after North Carolina Republicans redrew the congressional maps to favor their party, and all but ensured Jackson would lose.

But losing to Jackson left Bishop without an elected position for the first time since 2015. He previously served in both chambers of North Carolina’s legislature, and on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners.

Bishop is best known as the author of House Bill 2, a piece of legislation that required transgender people in schools and other government buildings to use the bathroom of the gender listed on their birth certificate. The bill was signed into law by former Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, but was ultimately repealed after the backlash caused substantial economic impact on the state.

In Congress, Bishop is a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, which has spent the past two years causing gridlock in Congress by using Republicans’ minuscule majority against the House speaker by forcing him to meet their demands or voting against Republican bills.

Bishop’s colleagues celebrated his nomination Tuesday evening.

“Great choice by President Trump, making North Carolina proud,” Sen. Thom Tillis replied to Bishop’s social media post.

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