Background and career
Sean Patrick Duffy (born October 3, 1971) is an American politician, attorney, and former television personality who is serving as the 20th United States secretary of transportation since January 2025. Duffy previously served as the acting administrator of NASA from July to December 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the U.S. representative for Wisconsin's seventh congressional district from 2011 to 2019 and the district attorney of Ashland County, Wisconsin from 2002 to 2010. Born in Hayward, Wisconsin, Duffy was a professional lumberjack, competing in the city's Lumberjack World Championship for several years and winning multiple titles in speed climbing. In 1997, he appeared on The Real World: Boston. Duffy graduated from St. Mary's College of Minnesota with a degree in marketing and from the William Mitchell College of Law in 1999. In 2002, Duffy was appointed by Wisconsin governor Scott McCallum as the district attorney of Ashland County, serving in the position until 2010. In July 2009, Duffy announced that he would challenge Democratic U.S. representative Dave Obey. He defeated state senator Julie Lassa, a Democrat who won the nomination after Obey announced he would not run for re-election, in the 2010 election for Wisconsin's seventh congressional district. Duffy was re-elected in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. Duffy resigned from Congress in September 2019 following his newborn daughter's health complications. After leaving Congress, Duffy worked for the political lobbying firm BGR Group. He began co-hosting Fox Business's The Bottom Line with Dagen McDowell in 2023. In November 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Duffy to serve as U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Duffy was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 28, 2025, and sworn on the same day. On July 9, President Trump announced Duffy would serve as acting administrator of NASA until the U.S. Senate's confirmation of Jared Isaacman on December 18.
Sean Patrick Duffy was born on October 3, 1971, in Hayward, Wisconsin. Duffy was the tenth child of Tom and Carol Duffy. He was raised in an Irish American Catholic family, several members of which participated in and won Hayward's annual Lumberjack World Championships. Duffy, inspired by his siblings, began logrolling when he was five. He attended and graduated from Hayward High School in 1990, where he played as a defenseman for the school's hockey team. He began speed climbing when he was fifteen. Duffy continued lumberjacking after high school, winning a tree climbing title at the 1993 Mississippi River Log Boom. His speed climbing technique involved reckless movement; Fred Scheer compared Duffy to a "race-car driver who bumps the wall now and then". Duffy was the world champion speed climber at the 1994 Lumberjack World Championship. He graduated from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota with a B.A degree in marketing in 1994 and worked for Scheer's Lumberjack Shows in the summers. By June 1997, The New York Times Magazine considered Duffy one of the top American lumberjacks at that time. He later graduated from the William Mitchell College of Law with a J.D. degree in 1999. Duffy's nephew is Erik Johnson, the longtime Colorado Avalanche defenseman who was the first overall pick in the 2006 NHL entry draft.
In 1997, Duffy auditioned for The Real World: Boston, the sixth iteration of MTV's The Real World set in Boston, Massachusetts, and became a cast member by July. In his audition, Duffy said that he was interested in "cute girls"; his role on the show was described by The New York Times as a "resident playboy". The series completed filming in December, though Duffy would begin filming for Road Rules: All Stars (1998) that month, necessitating him to delay another semester of law school. On the set of Road Rules, he met Rachel Campos. The two married in April 1999 at the Newman Center at Arizona State University located within Old St. Mary's Church; though they planned to wed later that year, Campos's unexpected pregnancy expedited their wedding; the two have nine children together. In 2002, Duffy appeared in and won Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons. He competed in the Great Outdoor Games's competitions for log rolling in 2000 and 2001 and for speed climbing from 2000 to 2002 and in 2005. In 2003, Duffy was named as a commentator for the Great Outdoor Games. He was named as an honorary athlete for the 2004 Badger State Winter Games. Additionally, he was a commentator for the mixed doubles Boom Run.
After graduating from law school in 1999, Duffy worked for his father's practice for two years before becoming a special prosecutor for Ashland County. In June 2002, Wisconsin governor Scott McCallum appointed Duffy as the district attorney of Ashland County following Michael Gableman's resignation. Duffy told The Post-Crescent that he intended to run for a complete term in that year's election. He ran unopposed in that year's election and the 2004 election. Duffy served as a Wisconsin delegate in the 2004 Republican National Convention and the 2004 presidential election. In May 2005, Wisconsin's Federal Nominating Commission forwarded four candidates, including Duffy, to succeed J. B. Van Hollen as the United States attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. Duffy was re-elected in 2006 and 2008. As district attorney, he had a ninety percent conviction rate.
In June 2003, Duffy stated that he was considering challenging representative Dave Obey, who had served as the United States representative for Wisconsin's seventh congressional district since 1969, as a Republican in the 2004 election. In February 2004, he declined to challenge Obey, citing Rachel's expected third child. In July 2009, Duffy indicated he would run for representative. On July 9, at Wausau Homes in Rothschild, Duffy announced that he would challenge Obey in the 2010 election. He later told The New York Times that he decided to challenge Obey, then the chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, over his position in strengthening government, particularly his role in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and healthcare reforms proposed during the Obama administration. Finance filings released by Duffy's campaign in October revealed that he had accrued relatively fewer donations than Obey, though Duffy had not taken money from political action committees. The achievement made the campaign eligible for the National Republican Congressional Committee's Young Guns program, giving it further funding. The Duffy campaign hit $300,000 in January 2010, setting a record. Duffy received endorsements from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and the Seventh Congressional District Republican Party through a caucus it held. In May 2010, Obey announced that he would not be running for re-election. The following day, the Duffy campaign was promoted within the Young Guns program, further unlocking additional financial resources. By that month, Duffy had been expected to advance to the general election. In September, Duffy defeated Dan Mielke in the Republican primary. Duffy defeated Julie Lassa to win the general election in November.
Duffy spoke at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference, focusing his talk on "cutting spending by the spenders". He criticized earmarks in his campaign, though he later expressed a willingness to secure necessary financing. His critics labeled a measure to construct the St. Croix Crossing as an earmark; Duffy disputed that label. Duffy expressed reservations over an effort to repeal sections of the Affordable Care Act, but voted with Republicans amid a reassurance of a replacement from House majority whip Kevin McCarthy. He voted against a bill that would defund NPR, citing his constituent's use of public radio. In June 2011, the Wisconsin State Assembly approved a congressional map that would politically benefit Duffy with the intention of securing his seat. He was re-elected in 2012, 2016, and 2018. After being initially sworn in, Duffy was named to the House Committee on Financial Services. In November 2014, he was named as the chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. In October 2015, Duffy was named to the House Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood. A proposed bill by Duffy in July 2011 would have installed a five-member oversight panel to control the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and would have given Congress greater authority to overturn the bureau's regulations. He praised the Budget Control Act to resolve the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis as an act of bipartisanship. In April 2016, he introduced the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act to resolve the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis. Duffy proposed a bill in January 2019 that would have expanded presidential tariff authority. Duffy spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention—despite an overall lessened prominence from House Republicans at the convention that year, the 2016 Republican National Convention, and the 2020 Republican National Convention. Duffy started Plaidcast (2017–2019) in 2017, among several members of Congress who started a podcast that year.
