November 15 – President-elect Donald J. Trump announced Wednesday, November 13, that he has nominated Republican Representative Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General via a post on his social media platform.

“Matt is a profoundly talented and tenacious lawyer, educated at the William & Mary College of Law, who has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reforms at the Department of Justice,” Trump said in his social media post. “Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan weaponization of our justice system. Matt will end armed government, protect our borders, dismantle criminal organizations, and restore Americans’ badly broken faith and trust in the Department of Justice.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Gaetz will replace Merrick B. Garland, the current attorney general who was appointed in March 2021, and will become the head of the Justice Department and the federal government’s chief law enforcement officer.

Gaetz, who was nearing the end of his fourth term representing Florida’s first congressional district when he resigned to accept the nomination, is a staunch Trump loyalist with a controversial history. In 2020, the DOJ opened an investigation into Gaetz after it was alleged that he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel across state lines with him. The DOJ closed the investigation in 2023.

Washington voted largely blue in the election, so here’s what you need to know about Gaetz and how he could impact the Evergreen State if confirmed.

Who is Matt Gaetz?

Gaetz, whose father is a Florida state legislator, has deep ties to his home state. He was born in Hollywood, Florida, attended high school in Niceville in the northwest part of the state, and attended college at Florida State University. While Gaetz left the state to get his law degree, he returned there to practice law.

Gaetz served as a representative in the state legislature from 2010 to 2016, before running for Congress that year and winning the seat. Gaetz became the representative for Florida’s 1st congressional district in January 2017, a role he held until he resigned earlier this week to focus on his nomination for attorney general.

What Gaetz has said about Trump, January 6

Gaetz has earned a reputation as a Trump loyalist. However, it is not always reflected in his voting record. According to political data tracking and analysis site FiveThirtyEight, Gaetz voted in line with the then-president’s position 85% of the time during Trump’s time in office. Between 2017 and 2018, Gaetz voted in line with Trump’s position 81.1% of the time, one of the lowest rates of any Republican in Congress, although it rose to 89% in the following two years.

But while his voting record isn’t the most pro-Trump, Gaetz is a public figure. The congressman has made repeated media appearances in favor of the president-elect. In 2019, he posted what some believed was a threatening message on Twitter about former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen ahead of Cohen’s testimony about the then-president.

After the 2020 election, Gaetz pushed unsubstantiated claims that the vote had been stolen from Trump, and continued to do so after the events of January 6, 2021 and well into President Biden’s term. He also blamed the January 6 attacks on left-wing activists.

Gaetz has been under DOJ investigation

Gaetz is a controversial figure, even among Republicans — late last year he filed a motion to impeach then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The now closed DOJ investigation into Gaetz stemmed from a separate investigation into his friend Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to sex-trafficking charges. The investigation is believed to have started in late 2020 and increased the following year. After investigating whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a minor and paid for her travel, in early 2023, the DOJ decided it did not have enough evidence to proceed with the case.

A former White House aide testified that Gaetz asked the Trump administration for a preemptive pardon for all charges related to the investigation. Although the DOJ investigation did not result in any charges, he was still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee until he resigned to take over the DOJ.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations, claiming they are the result of an attempt to extort him.

Gaetz’s political positions

Although he doesn’t always agree with Trump, Gaetz’s voting record is one of the more conservative in Congress. The conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, a key organization behind Project 2025, says Gaetz has voted in line with his issue positions 88% of the time during his four terms. Even with that number falling to 81% in the current term, it’s still well above the Republican average of 73%.

Gaetz is staunchly anti-immigration, going so far as to support the “great compensation” conspiracy theory. For Washington state in particular, Gaetz tends to vote against climate protection. The League of Conservation Voters gives its voting record on climate issues a score of 10%.

Still, there are a handful of issues on which he aligns with the left. In 2019, Gaetz introduced a bill to expand research into the medical use of marijuana. During his time as a state legislator, Gaetz introduced a measure to overturn a Florida ban that prohibited same-sex couples from adopting.

How Gaetz as AG can affect WA

So how might Gaetz affect Washington state if confirmed as attorney general? It’s hard to know for sure, but there are some clues.

Much of the DOJ’s job is to prosecute people who violate federal law. This is not necessarily about issues typically considered partisan, although a recent DOJ case in Washington resulted in charges against a business owner for violating the federal Clean Air Act.

A bigger impact could be the DOJ’s ability to challenge state laws. A Gaetz-led DOJ could challenge Washington policies it believes violate federal law. But Gaetz’s early comments suggest he may want the department to have a relatively small footprint. In a widely reported social media post just before his nomination was announced that appears to have been deleted, Gaetz spoke of abolishing “every one of the three bureaus,” such as the FBI and the CDC.

This echoes his comments from the Conservative Political Action Committee’s 2023 conference. In his speech, Gaetz said that “either we get this government back on our side, or we abolish, and get rid of, abolish (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), DOJ — every single one of them if they don’t capsize.”

The Washington government is likely to take steps to minimize the Trump administration’s impact on Washington.

“Washington has strong statutes that protect our values, and when Trump messed with our state, we sued him 97 times — we only lost two cases on the merits while he was in office,” current Gov. Jay Inslee said in a press release the day after the Nov. 5 election .

Governor-elect Bob Ferguson is widely expected to approach Trump’s second presidency in a similar manner. He served as the state’s attorney general during the first Trump term, overseeing several lawsuits against the Trump administration, including notable ones on climate policy and immigration. Ferguson has already indicated that he plans to fight any Trump administration decision that he sees as an infringement on the rights of Washingtonians.

One impact of a Gaetz term as attorney general could be on grant funding the state receives. DOJ awards billions of dollars worth of grants each year to local governments and nonprofits for public safety programs. In recent months, Washington state organizations have received $10 million to help prevent domestic violence. If confirmed, Gaetz could reshuffle the department’s priorities and spending.

All of this is contingent on Gaetz being confirmed by the Senate. After the November election, Republicans are expected to control at least 52 and likely 53 Senate seats, giving Gaetz some cushion, but not much, if members of his party vote against his confirmation. You can read more about the confirmation process here.