By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Former U.S. Senator Jim Talent has taken a job with the St. Louis-based public relations company Fleishman-Hillard.
The firm says Talent will co-chair its Government Relations subsidiary beginning next month, working out of St. Louis and Washington.
Talent held office for 20, first as a state Representative and later as a Congressman. Last November, the Republican lost his U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Claire McCaskill.
Talent says the job will offer a "great platform" from which to raise the profile of such issues as defense, health care and transportation and get Congress to act on them.
Talent says he will continue his part-time fellowship at the Heritage Foundation, where he is helping to raise the issue of increased defense spending.
He's also advising Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney on domestic policy.