SEATTLE — The U.S. Senate has confirmed Seattle business leader and Democratic political fundraiser Roger Nyhus as ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
Nyhus, who was nominated for the post by President Joe Biden in September 2022, was confirmed late Wednesday on a Senate voice vote.
The ambassadorship includes Barbados, the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The awarding of the post was in keeping with the practice of presidents — both Democratic and Republican — granting ambassadorships to connected political fundraising patrons instead of career diplomats.
Nyhus hosted Biden at a 2019 fundraiser in Seattle and was among the more than 800 “bundlers” nationally who raised at least $100,000 in support of Biden’s presidential 2020 campaign.
According to a May 2023 report on the “donor to ambassador pipeline” by the Campaign Legal Center, Biden’s political ambassador nominees had donated more than $22.5 million to the Democratic Party.
Nyhus founded Nyhus Communications, a prominent Seattle public relations and advocacy firm, which he sold last year to a Spokane company. He previously worked as communications director for former Gov. Gary Locke and the late Seattle Mayor Paul Schell, and as a senior advocacy officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
He is an enrolled member of the Chinook Indian Nation and has been a leader in LGBTQ+ rights causes.
In a written statement, Nyhus said he was “incredibly honored” by the Senate confirmation.
“I am especially proud to serve President Biden as a business leader, gay man, member of the Chinook Indian Nation and Seattleite,” Nyhus said.
