Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has nom­i­nat­ed Trinidad-born for­mer Flori­da lieu­tenant gov­er­nor Jen­nifer John­son-Car­roll to serve as the next Unit­ed States am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The nom­i­na­tion was for­mal­ly sub­mit­ted to the US Sen­ate yes­ter­day and must be con­firmed be­fore John­son-Car­roll can take up the diplo­mat­ic post.

In a state­ment, the Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of Trinidad and To­ba­go (AM­CHAM T&T) wel­comed the nom­i­na­tion, de­scrib­ing it as an im­por­tant step in the ap­point­ment process and one that re­flects the con­tin­ued im­por­tance of the long­stand­ing re­la­tion­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States.

Orig­i­nal­ly from Arou­ca, John­son-Car­roll would be­come the first Trinidad and To­ba­go-born woman to serve as US am­bas­sador to T&T if con­firmed by the Sen­ate.

AM­CHAM said the nom­i­na­tion high­lights the con­tri­bu­tions of mem­bers of the T&T di­as­po­ra on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.

The Re­pub­li­can Par­ty’s of­fi­cial ac­count al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed John­son-Car­roll on her nom­i­na­tion and wished her suc­cess in the role.

John­son-Car­roll pre­vi­ous­ly served as Flori­da’s 18th lieu­tenant gov­er­nor.

In 2010, she be­came the first woman elect­ed to the of­fice and the first Caribbean-born per­son elect­ed to statewide of­fice in Flori­da.

She al­so made his­to­ry as the first Black per­son elect­ed to statewide of­fice in the state.

A US Navy vet­er­an, John­son-Car­roll served for 20 years, ris­ing from jet me­chan­ic to lieu­tenant com­man­der be­fore en­ter­ing pol­i­tics.

She lat­er served in the Flori­da House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and was in­volved in eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment ini­tia­tives, trade mis­sions and ef­forts to ex­pand busi­ness links be­tween Flori­da and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners.

John­son-Car­roll re­signed from her post as Flori­da lieu­tenant gov­er­nor in 2013, fol­low­ing a state in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to her busi­ness ties to a gam­bling re­fer­ral ser­vice, al­though she was cleared of any wrong­do­ing.

Through­out her ca­reer, she has main­tained ties to Trinidad and To­ba­go and has pre­vi­ous­ly led trade mis­sions aimed at strength­en­ing com­mer­cial re­la­tions be­tween Flori­da and T&T.

AM­CHAM said the Unit­ed States re­mains one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most im­por­tant strate­gic part­ners, with long­stand­ing ties in trade, in­vest­ment, en­er­gy, se­cu­ri­ty, ed­u­ca­tion, tech­nol­o­gy and peo­ple-to-peo­ple con­nec­tions.

The busi­ness group said it looks for­ward to work­ing with the next US am­bas­sador to strength­en op­por­tu­ni­ties for col­lab­o­ra­tion, in­vest­ment, in­no­va­tion and eco­nom­ic growth be­tween the two coun­tries.

The nom­i­na­tion will now be con­sid­ered by the Sen­ate For­eign Re­la­tions Com­mit­tee be­fore mov­ing to the full Sen­ate for con­fir­ma­tion.