Biden taps Rhode Island Gov. as Commerce Secretary, Boston Mayor for Labor
President-elect Joe Biden has selected two prominent New England politicians with sharply different profiles to run the principal cabinet agencies handling business and labor issues.
Biden intends to name Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to be his Secretary of Commerce, choosing the former venture capitalist to helm the agency at a time when the nation’s business community is struggling to adjust to an economy reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a person familiar with the matter. And he has picked Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a self- described “lifelong champion of working people,” to be the next Secretary of Labor, according to the same person. In pairing the two cabinet picks, Biden balanced Raimondo, who has often been at odds with major labor unions, with Walsh, who enjoys strong support from leaders of the AFLCIO and earned his union card in 1988 when he joined Laborers Local 223.
Before becoming mayor, Walsh was the head of Boston’s Building and Construction Trades Council.