U.S. soccer star Rapinoe is Inslee’s pick for American secretary of state

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe is quickly becoming a favourite pick in fantasy political football.

U.S. presidential candidate Gov. Jay Inslee, a democrat from Washington, made a whopper of a campaign promise Saturday: If he makes it to the White House, he will ask the U.S. women’s national soccer team co-captain to serve as the country’s secretary of state.

“My first act will be to ask Megan Rapinoe to be my secretary of state. I haven’t asked her yet, so this could be a surprise to her,” Inslee said at the progressive Netroots Nation conference in Philadelphia. The governor said he wanted a secretary of state who leads with “love rather than hate.”

“I actually believe this because what I think what she has said that has inspired us so much is such an antithesis of the president’s foreign policies,” said Inslee, who isn’t the first politician to throw Rapinoe’s jersey in the political ring. When Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., dropped out of the 2020 presidential race last week, he joked that Rapinoe would have his support if she chose to run for the White House.

Rapinoe certainly fits that bill for some. She has publicly clashed with U.S. President Donald Trump, who she has said “excludes people who look like me and are me.”

In her much-discussed speech at last week’s Women’s World Cup ticker tape parade in New York, Rapinoe challenged the assembled crowd to “be better.”

“We have to love more, hate less. We’ve got to listen more and talk less. We’ve got to know that this is everybody’s responsibility,” she said.