Senator John Kerry, US secretary of State this afternoon

President Obama will nominate Sen. John F. Kerry to be the next secretary of state, according to a senior administration official. An announcement was expected at the White House later Friday.

Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his selection all but guarantees a swift, smooth path to confirmation. The lawmaker has been a frequent foreign policy adviser and confidant to Obama, and his long experience means he has bipartisan advocates in the Senate.

Kerry has long sought the post as America’s top diplomat, but appeared to be Obama’s second choice after U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice. Rice withdrew her name from consideration earlier this month because of Republican opposition based on her role as administration spokeswoman in the fatal Sept. 11 attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya.

Kerry would succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the job. Clinton has long said she planned to leave at the close of Obama’s first term, although she has pledged to remain in place until a successor is confirmed.

The confirmation hearing for Kerry would take place before the committee he now heads.

He would take over a State Department stretched by short budgets and rising security costs overseas, and a diplomatic corps still reeling from the killing of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, a rising star whom Kerry knew well.

Source: The Washington Post