Donald Trump has nominated Tea Party Republican Mike Pompeo to be the next Secretary of State. Here’s what you need to know about the man.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo speaks at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on worldwide threats, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

After playing power forward in high school in California, he entered the United States Military Academy, and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. He graduated first in his class. In that honor he joined the likes of James McPherson and Douglas MacArthur.

In his Army career he served in the Armor Branch in central Europe during the Cold War, and was part of the 4th Infantry Division during Desert Storm. After retiring at the rank of Captain, he attended Harvard Law School, receiving his JD and editing the Harvard Law Review.

But he was still had an engineering degree from the Army, and after school he re-entered the real world. He co-founded Thayer Aerospace, an aerospace machining company. From there sold off his stake and was named President of Sentry International, in the oilfield equipment engineering business.

Finally, in 2010, Pompeo entered politics. Backed by the conservative, TEA party-friendly group Americans for Prosperity, he won a primary against an establishment moderate, and went on to defeat the Democrat to win a seat in the House of Representatives. Pompeo would go on to win re-election three times, each time by a large margin.

Pompeo only left the house after Donald Trump won the Presidency and appointed him to be CIA Director. He was confirmed quickly, being sworn in on January 23, 2017, so Pompeo has served as CIA Director for just over a year. That is a normal duration since the CIA Director and Director of National Intelligence offices were created.

His next confirmation may not be so swift:

It took 4 months to get a confirmed replacement for Price at HHS & 5 months to replace Kelly at DHS. It will take only two GOP defections to put State in a long limbo.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) March 13, 2018