Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is an American lawyer, politician, diplomat and the current United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom since 2018. Brownback previously served as the 46th Governor of Kansas, as a U.S. Senator from Kansas, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and as the Secretary of Agriculture of Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives during the Republican Revolution of 1994, representing Kansas's 2nd congressional district for a single term, before running in a 1996 special election for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Bob Dole. He won the special election and the following two regular elections, serving until 2011. Brownback was elected Governor of Kansas and served from 2011 until his resignation in 2018 to take a job in the Trump Administration. He ran for president in 2008, but withdrew before the primaries began and endorsed eventual Republican nominee John McCain.
