P2025 links: A Project 2025 contributor; a 2023 visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. 

Qualifications: Served as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) at the end of Trump 1.0. Was GOP chairman of the 2017-19 HHS Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection. Served as acting US attorney for the Eastern District of Texas from May 2008 to April 2008, and was mayor of Heath, Texas, from 2002-12.

Disqualifications: Ratcliffe was ranked as the most conservative Texas legislator in Congress by the Heritage Foundation in 2016, and second-most in the country. He was a member of Trump’s impeachment legal team. He stands accused of declassifying Russian intel that disparaged Democrats related to the 2016 elections, among complaints of partisan moves while at the DNI. He is viewed as a China hawk, backed Trump’s Muslim ban, and has questioned US solidarity with Ukraine –positions that mirror Project 2025 and the Trump 2.0 agenda. 

Views: Heath is a Catholic who has taken anti-trans positions, and opposes not only same-sex marriage but also civil unions, according to a GLAAD Accountability review.