Trump snags third House committee chair endorsement

Donald Trump won the endorsement of House Administration Committee Chairwoman Candice Miller one day after becoming the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Miller, a Michigan Republican, is the second female lawmaker and third committee chair to endorse Trump.

”I believe in the good sense of the American people, the voters, and the voters of the Republican party, and they have overwhelmingly spoken. I am totally and completely looking forward to President Trump. As our presumptive nominee, I am confident in his candidacy and give him my full support,” Miller said in a statement on Wednesday.

{mosads}Her endorsement comes after two other House committee chairmen, Transportation’s Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), publicly backed Trump last week. 

Even before Trump’s last two GOP rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, dropped out of the race after the real estate mogul’s victory in the Indiana primary on Tuesday, Miller was already coming around to the presumptive nominee.

Miller, who previously endorsed Carly Fiorina for president, indicated during an interview with The Hill last week that she was getting behind Trump. Her remarks came a day after Cruz chose Fiorina as his running mate.

“I think Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee, and I absolutely believe he’s going to be the president. And I’ve just come to that in the last couple days,” she said last Thursday.

During that interview, Miller joined other female Republicans who expressed enthusiasm for the idea that Trump should choose a female running mate.

“I think it’d be great if he would consider a woman,” she said. Miller offered New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez as one possibility, although the nation’s first female Hispanic governor has criticized Trump.

Miller was the only House committee chairwoman in the current session of Congress until former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appointed Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to chair the select panel investigating abortion practices late last year.

Miller is retiring from Congress at the end of this year but is running for Macomb County public works commissioner.

Miller is now the 13th Capitol Hill Republican to endorse Trump, along with Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Reps. Lou Barletta (Pa.), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), Chris Collins (N.Y.), Scott DesJarlais (Tenn.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.), Duncan Hunter (Calif.), Tom Marino (Pa.), Tom Reed (N.Y.), Jimmy Duncan (Tenn.), Jeff Miller and Shuster.