OHIO — President-elect Donald Trump nominated Brooke Rollins to serve as Secretary of Agriculture within his incoming administration.

“If I'm reading the tea leaves, you know, you look at this cabinet and his selections, for the most part you could say their loyalty or their connection to Trump and his policy initiatives trumped, so to speak, their connection to the job," said agriculture expert Andy Vance. "But if you didn't have that agriculture connection, maybe that's, you know, not the same pick."

Rollins served within Trump's previous administration as a White House aide. She is also the President and CEO of the America First Policy Institute.

"Rollins is a lawyer, policy expert, has significant conservative policy credentials, comes from Glen Rose, Texas, grew up in agriculture, was involved in 4-H and FFA, and kind of that's where her agricultural bona fides come from," Vance said. "[She] studied agriculture and has a degree in that from Texas A&M University, but then has spent really the last 20 years in conservative policy circles, running a number of conservative think tanks, including one of the President's, you know, kind of very pro-Trump policy think tanks called the America  First Policy Institute. [She] also served in the first Trump White House, was his head of domestic policy for part of his first tenure."

The Ag Report airs every Friday on Spectrum News 1.