Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge met with members of President-elect Donald Trump's White House transition team in New York City on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Arkansas' U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, who has been mentioned as a possible secretary of defense, denied reports that he made a trip of his own earlier in the week to Trump headquarters.
"I have not traveled to Trump Tower, [and] no trip's scheduled," he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thursday.
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The first-term lawmaker didn't say whether he's interested in a Cabinet position.
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Rutledge, on the other hand, has expressed interest in working for the newly elected president in some capacity.
The Batesville native, a frequent critic of the Environmental Protection Agency, could wind up as EPA administrator, Politico reported last week. The political news publication, citing unnamed sources, said Rutledge is one of several potential candidates for the post.
Rutledge was an active surrogate for the Republican presidential nominee during his campaign. She spoke at the Republican National Convention in July and frequently appeared on cable news channels, vigorously defending the New York billionaire.
Meeting with reporters outside of Trump Tower on Thursday, Rutledge said she was stopping by to discuss "curbing back some of these out-of-control federal regulations ... and to visit about what we are doing to make sure the American economy keeps growing and more people have jobs."
Rutledge worked in the counsel's office of the Republican National Committee from 2010-12 and has called the organization's chairman, Reince Priebus, a friend. Trump tapped Priebus earlier this week to serve as his White House chief of staff.
Asked about potentially working for the administration in Washington, D.C., Rutledge said, "It's a beautiful city. That's to be determined at a later date. You always take the call when the White House calls."
She indicated that she'd be happy to work for Trump or to continue in her current post, saying, "I love being the A.G. of Arkansas."
Rutledge and Cotton aren't the only Arkansans reported to be in the running for key positions.
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, an early Trump defender, is on the short list for secretary of health and human services, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, Politico says Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008 and 2016, is being mentioned as a possible commerce secretary.
Another potential candidate to lead the Commerce Department is Dan DiMicco, a former chief executive officer of Nucor Corp. DiMicco, a Trump adviser during the campaign, once lived in Arkansas, serving as general manager of the Nucor-Yamato steel mill in Blytheville.
Huckabee could not be reached for comment Thursday. A telephone listing for DiMicco in North Carolina was not answered.
In an interview Thursday, Cotton declined to discuss whether he'd be willing to serve as secretary of defense.
"I'm not going to speculate about the president-elect's choices. He's going to make those choices in due time, and I think we should just all give him the time to make the choice that's right for his administration and right for our country," the Republican from Dardanelle said.
Cotton, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the selection is an important one.
"The secretary of defense job is vitally important. It's directly in the chain of command from the president, the commander in chief, to the combatant commanders who are fighting the war in the field. It's also in charge of all the services that are providing the forces and the troops necessary to fight those wars," he said.
Information for this article was provided by Ivan Couronne of Agence France-Presse.
A Section on 11/18/2016