Russell Vought
Introduction
Russell Vought is an American political organizer and government official. He is President Donald Trump's nominee to become Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Prior to his nomination, Vought served for seven years as the vice president of Heritage Action. He has also served as the executive director and budget director of the Republican Study Committee, as the policy director for the Republican Conference of the United States House of Representatives, and as a legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Phil Gramm.
Views
In 2015, Vought's alma mater, Wheaton College – an evangelical Christian institution – suspended Larycia Hawkins, a tenured professor, because she stated that Muslims worship the same God as Christians. This sparked a debate in the Wheaton community regarding how Christian theology should understand Islam and its relationship to salvation. In January 2016, Vought weighed in on this theological debate in a blog post in which he stated, "Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned." During the confirmation hearings for Vought's nomination to the Office of Management and Budget, Senator Bernie Sanders questioned him about this statement.