What diversity in Biden’s Cabinet may look like.
Diverse experts expected to fill new administration
President-elect Joe Biden campaigned to have a government as diverse as America. After 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president, Biden now has an opportunity to tap a broad range of government officials and policy experts to lead the federal departments.
In a June 10 column in USA TODAY, Biden said: “Across the board – from our classrooms to our courtrooms to the president’s Cabinet – we have to make sure that our leadership and our institutions actually look like America.”
In his first speech as president-elect, Biden echoed that message: “I said from the outset I wanted a campaign that represented America, and I think we did that. Now that’s what I want the administration to look like.”
Here are some of the choices Biden faces in filling key Cabinet positions:
Justice Department
● Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a white member of the Senate Judiciary Committee where she has been harshly critical of Attorney General William Barr.
● Sally Yates, a white former deputy attorney general in the Obama administration. She served in the Trump administration transition as acting attorney general before she was fired for refusing to support the president’s ban on immigration from Muslim countries.
● Stacey Abrams, a Black former member of the Georgia Legislature who was among those considered as Biden’s running mate. Abrams has been a fierce advocate for voting rights after running an unsuccessful but high-profile campaign for governor of Georgia.
● Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a Black member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and presidential candidate, was a key sponsor of criminal justice reform.
● Preet Bharara, who was born in India, a former chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan’s Southern District of New York, was fired by Trump after the the newly elected president had asked him to remain on the job.
Defense Department
● Michele Flournoy, a white former undersecretary of defense in the Obama administration beneath Gates and Leon Panetta. She is co-founder and managing partner of West Exec Advisors and co-founded the think tank Center for a New American Security.
● Jeh Johnson, a Black lawyer who h was secretary of homeland security in the Obama administration and previously as general counsel at the Pentagon.
● Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a member of the Armed Services Committee and an Army National Guard veteran who lost her legs when her helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq. Duckworth, whose mother is from Thailand, was assistant secretary of veterans affairs in the Obama administration.
● Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a white longtime member of the Armed Services Committee who might be chosen if Republicans keep control of the Senate. Reed served in the Army in the 82nd Airborne Division before becoming a professor at the U.S. Military Academy.
State Department
● Susan Rice, who is Black and served as national security adviser and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Obama administration. Rice could face a rocky confirmation in a closely divided Senate because of statements she made after the deadly 2012 attack on a U.S. Consulate in Libya.
● Anthony Blinken, a white Biden campaign adviser and Obama’s deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser.
● William Burns, the white president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former deputy secretary of state under Obama.
Treasury
● Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a white former Harvard law professor and a primary rival of Biden. She is a progressive advocate for the working class against big banks and corporations over lending and other consumer issues.
● Lael Brainard, a white governor at the Federal Reserve in both the Obama and Clinton administrations.
● Roger Ferguson, the Black chief exh ecutive of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America and a former Fed vice chairman.
Homeland Security
● Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban American lawyer who ran Customs and Immigration Services before becoming deputy secretary of the department during the Obama administration.
●Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The daughter of immigrants from India, she had served as principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
●Julian Castro, a Hispanic former secretary of housing and urban development and former mayor of San Antonio.
Health and Human Services
● Ezekiel Emanuel, the white vice provost for global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania who served as a health adviser to Biden’s campaign. He was a special adviser for health policy in the White House Office of Management and Budget under Obama.
● Vivek Murthy, a trustee of the Rand Corp. and health adviser to Biden’s campaign. Murthy, whose parents are from India, was surgeon general during the Obama administration.
● New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, whom Biden considered as vice president, is the first Latina Democrat to the post, previously was a state Cabinet secretary for the Department of Aging and Long-term Services from 2002 to 2004 and the Department of Health from 2004 to 2007.
Labor
● Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a white progressive, self-described socialist who was Biden’s chief rival during the primaries. Sanders has fought throughout his political career for issues such as expanding access to health care, raising the minimum wage and regulating workplace safety.
● William Spriggs, a Black professor of economics at Howard University, chief economist to the AFL-CIO and former assistant secretary of labor during the Obama administration.
● Sharon Block, the white executive director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School and former senior counselor to the labor secretary during the Obama administration.
Education
●Randi Weingarten, the white head h of the American Federation of Teachers. She personally endorsed Warren during the primaries but organized virtual campaign events for Biden.
● Lily Garcia, former head of the National Education Association whose mother is from Panama. She serves on the president’s advisory commission on educational excellence for Hispanics.
Veterans Affairs
● Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., an h Army National Guard veteran who lost her legs when her helicopter was fired on in Iraq. Duckworth, whose mother is from Thailand, served as assistant secretary of veterans affairs during the Obama administration.
● Pete Buttigieg, the white former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a primary rival of Biden who served in the Navy Reserve and was deployed to Afghanistan. Buttigieg, who is gay, also has been mentioned as a potential U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Central Intelligence Agency
● Avril Haines, a white former deputy director of CIA, the first woman to serve in that post, and deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration.
● Thomas E. Donilon, a white former national security adviser in the Obama administration who oversaw the transition at the State Department.
● Michael Morell, a white, 30-year CIA veteran who served as the agency’s acting director and its deputy director from 2010 to 2013.