Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will chair Hillary Clinton’s transition team, the Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign announced Tuesday.
Salazar, whose name was also briefly floated as a possible vice presidential pick, was also a Colorado senator from 2005-09.
Salazar will serve alongside four co-chairs — former National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, president of the Center for American Progress Neera Tanden and Maggie Williams, director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.
Granholm’s name has been floated as a possible future chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
“Once Hillary Clinton makes history by being elected as the nation’s first woman president, we want to have a turnkey operation in place so she can hit the ground running right away,” Salazar said in a statement.
Ed Meier and Ann O’Leary, two of the campaign’s top policy advisers, will also move from their jobs at the Clinton campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters to work full time on the transition team in Washington, D.C. Heather Boushey, executive director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, will serve as the team’s chief economist.
The team is responsible for ensuring a seamless transition should Clinton win the presidency in November — this includes policy priorities.
“These individuals, who bring a deep level of experience in the work of presidential transitions, will help us build a team that is ready to govern after the general election,” campaign chairman John Podesta, who served as co-chair of Barack Obama’s 2008 transition team, said in a statement.
Clinton is a bit behind her rival Republican nominee Donald Trump. In May, he announced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will serve as the chairman of his transition team to prep for a possible Trump administration.
