Raimondo to D.C.; McKee will be governor
Gov. Raimondo will serve as Biden’s commerce secretary
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden on Friday introduced the governor of Rhode Island, the mayor of Boston and a small-business advocate from California as the newest members of his economic team.
The formal announcement came a day after his transition team announced Gov. Gina Raimondo as his choice to become commerce secretary, Mayor Marty Walsh as his candidate for labor secretary and Isabel Guzman as his pick to lead the Small Business Administration.
One of Biden’s top challenges after he takes office Jan. 20 will be to nurse an economy reeling from the coronavirus pandemic back to health. He said the newest members of his economic team will help achieve that “by building an economy where every American is in on the deal.”
Biden, in introducing his picks, urged the
Senate to quickly confirm his Cabinet nominees and other hires who he said will help steer his response to “this dark winter pandemic.”
“We have no time to lose,” said Biden, who also announced he was tapping Don Graves, one of his longtime advisers, to be the deputy commerce secretary.
With the picks, which require Senate confirmation, Biden moved a step closer to rounding out a Cabinet that he has pledged will be the most diverse in history. He has yet to name a candidate for CIA director.
Raimondo, 49, is a former venture capitalist serving her second term as governor after previously serving as state treasurer. As commerce secretary, Raimondo would help set the Biden administration’s trade policy and promote U.S. opportunities for growth domestically and overseas.
“Rhode Island may be small, but our
governor during this critical moment.”
“I thank Governor Raimondo for her leadership and her service to Rhode Island,” McKee concluded.
McKee’s office said the lieutenant governor will be using the weekend to convene with Gov. Raimondo and her team to ensure he is briefed on the COVID response and other critical department activities. He will also use the
weekend to begin planning the structure of his transition team, the office noted.
The statement held a conciliatory tone for what has been at times a frayed public relationship between the governor and the lieutenant governor over issues of support for small business – a key goal of McKee during his two terms as lieutenant governor – and the use of federal coronavirus funding to assist local communities with their costs of managing the pandemic.
McKee has also sought to serve as an ombudsman for Rhode Islanders in regards to the costs of public utilities and championed moves to reduce the costs of electricity and other services through new cost-shar
ing initiatives, such as net metering for renewable energy.
As a former mayor, McKee has also worked with a consortium of Rhode Island municipalities to help reduce their costs through coordinated purchasing, resource sharing and legislative initiatives.
McKee, whose family operates McKee Brothers Oil on Davis Street in Cumberland, has also retained his ties to Rhode Island’s small business community with his chairmanship of the state’s Small Business Advisory Council.
The Lt. Governor went into office with an at times controversial position in support of public charter schools – in particular the mayoral academy schools he helped promote
in Northern Rhode Island. But McKee has also supported education generally, with his programs highlighting student success and initiative. Recently, he backed municipalities in determining when they would choose to reopen schools for the safety of both students and staff during the pandemic.
Sworn in as the state’s 69th lieutenant governor in January 2015, McKee has also served as chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association, co-chaired its energy committee and served as a member of the education committee.
He is a lifelong Cumberland resident and graduate of Cumberland High School who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and
education from Assumption College and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
McKee has served on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Cumberland and Lincoln for 25 years and was a youth basketball coach for the organization.
He and his wife, Susan, have two children, Matt and Kara.
A longtime friend of McKee’s, former Cumberland Mayor William Murray, said on Thursday that he expects McKee will do just fine in his new role for the state.
“He is prepared, without any question, to go in as governor as a working lieutenant
governor,” Murray said.
Citing McKee’s work on utility costs and with municipalities and small business during his terms in office, Murray said he believes McKee will have no difficulty taking on the new responsibilities of the governor’s office.
“I would tell him to continue to do what he does. He is dedicated to the business world and the education world and he is a steady person,” Murray said. “I’m sure he will have an open door and be willing to meet with everyone and listen. He is a very good listener and he takes everything in,” he said.