President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet and other senior staffing choices have been complicated by the competing demands for representation by the various groups inside the Democratic coalition, often breaking down along the lines of race, ethnicity, or gender.
Biden’s pick for secretary of veterans affairs isn’t a veteran. His choice for secretary of agriculture isn’t black, as some civil rights activists and African American farmers groups had hoped. His intention to appoint the first black secretary of defense came at the expense of nominating the first woman to this post. That nominee is also facing scrutiny precisely because of his veteran status — only five years removed from being a general, he would need a congressional waiver to helm the Pentagon as a civilian, and some liberals are reluctant to give him one.
The competing demands may stem in part from the perception that the aging veteran deal-maker may be more malleable than previous presidents.
Then, there are ideological divisions among Democrats. Biden, who campaigned for the votes of suburban Republicans and open socialists alike in his bid to assemble the biggest possible electoral coalition to defeat President Trump, has to date selected more prominent centrists and establishment figures than breakout representatives of the party’s liberal wing to important jobs.
Rep. Marcia Fudge, a black woman and Ohio Democrat, had been openly campaigning for secretary of agriculture since November. “As this country becomes more and more diverse, we’re going to have to stop looking at only certain agencies as those that people like me fit in,” she said at the time. “You know, it’s always, ‘we want to put the black person in Labor or HUD.”
Biden then moved to put Fudge in Housing and Urban Development, choosing her as secretary for the department. He then opted for Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor and two-term secretary of agriculture under President Barack Obama, to serve in that position again. This was reportedly to avoid angering Fudge supporters by tapping former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a North Dakota Democrat seen as the Ohio congresswoman’s main rival for the job, instead.
“He wasn’t anxious to come back. He wasn’t looking for this job. But I was persistent,” Biden said when he announced a new round of Cabinet nominees on Friday. “I asked him to serve again in this role because he knows USDA inside and out.” Yet Politico described civil rights and black farmers’ groups as “seething over the decision to tap Vilsack, a white man.”
Michele Flournoy was widely presumed to be the favorite for secretary of defense. She would have been the first woman to serve in this role. Some liberals regarded Flournoy as too hawkish and closely tied to the defense industry. So Biden selected Lloyd Austin, who would be the first black defense secretary, instead. That choice has also rankled some on the Left, who fear that granting a waiver to let the former general serve atop the Pentagon, coming so soon after James Mattis was provided the same exemption, could undermine civilian control of the military.
Liberals were prepared to revolt over reports that the relatively centrist Bruce Reed was going to be Biden’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. He instead went with Neera Tanden, who was seen as less objectionable but whose harsh criticism of Bernie Sanders supporters while she was supporting Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016 still alienates many on the Left.
Then came reports that Biden was going to pass over New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is Hispanic, for Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as secretary of Health and Human Services. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra landed the job instead.
Former Obama White House chief of staff Denis McDonough is Biden’s nonveteran choice for secretary of veterans affairs.
Republicans say the dust-ups suggest the Biden administration will be mired in identity politics. Democratic strategists say they detract attention from a Biden team that is actually quite diverse and well qualified. Biden rolled out an all-female communications team, and there are no white men among Vice President Kamala Harris’s staff.
“It’s a shame, really,” said one Democrat. “Especially when you look at the credentials compared to the Trump administration.”
“Biden is holding true to his word by appointing people that will satisfy the poles of the party,” said Jessica Tarlov, another party strategist. Stefan Hankin said the percentage of people who will care about the composition of Biden’s Cabinet “is in the single digits.”
Democratic presidents have promised Cabinets that “look like America” since Bill Clinton was president in the 1990s.
