Who, incidentally, is Terry Branstad, and how was this Federal judicial decision a massive repudiation of all Branstad stood for as six time Governor of Iowa and presently Trump's Ambassador to China?
Terry Edward Branstad (born November 17, 1946) is an American politician, university administrator, and diplomat serving as the United States Ambassador to China since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Governor of Iowa. Branstad also previously served three terms in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979.
Branstad served as the 39th Governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1999. After his retirement from politics, he served as President of Des Moines University from 2003 to 2009. In 2010, he returned to politics to run for Governor again, defeating incumbent Chet Culver to become the state's 42nd Governor. He was reelected to a sixth overall term in 2014. In December 2015, he surpassed New York's George Clinton as the longest-tenured Governor in American history.
In December 2016, Branstad accepted President Donald Trump's nomination as United States Ambassador to China, a position he was confirmed and sworn into in May 2017. Upon his resignation as Governor, he was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, who became Iowa's first female Governor.
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