![]() She named student-debt cancellation, reversing anti-choice regulations and criminal justice reform as further priorities in the progressive change she hopes to emerge from the new administration. The 7th District representative from Massachusetts, who has become a national leader in the progressive movement since her upset election victory over an 18-year incumbent just two years ago, sees no advantage in drawing out the honeymoon for the incoming president and vice president. She gathered the signatures of more than 40 fellow House Democrats in a letter asking him to sign an executive order on the day of his inauguration halting all federal executions and banning prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. Ayanna Pressley, who campaigned for Biden in more than a dozen states, has already challenged the president-elect to abolish the federal death penalty. ![]() Deval Patrick, who served as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under President Bill Clinton, and Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins have both been mentioned among possible nominees. With a national clamor for a long-overdue racial reckoning in the courts and police practices in the wake of George Floyd’s death beneath the knee of a Minneapolis cop last May, Biden is under pressure to name an African American as attorney general. He also appointed Princeton Professor Cecilia Rouse as the first Black head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, responsible for broad outreach to the nation’s diverse constituencies. He chose Michael Regan, North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.īiden passed over Susan Rice, the first Black woman to serve as National Security Adviser, for secretary of state, but named her to head up the Domestic Policy Council, a position that would round out the resume of the former United Nations ambassador and groom her for future elective office. Debra Haaland as the first Native American to head the Department of the Interior. Marcia Fudge as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as secretary of Health and Human Services and U.S. Austin III as the first Black secretary of defense, U.S. ![]() The inspirational run of Barack Obama to two terms as president yielded the Affordable Care Act but relatively little progress on closing the wealth and educational gaps among Black Americans - two areas that African American voters rank high among their priorities for the incoming Biden administration.īiden’s early cabinet appointments include Gen. “If you’ve got diversity and it leads to the same outcomes as a non-diverse team, what is the difference? I don’t get too caught up in the symbolic gestures. Keith Motley Chair of Sport Leadership and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “Diversity is important, but outcomes are important, too,” said Joseph Cooper, a social scientist who holds the J. You’ve always had my back, and I’ll have yours.”Ĭlose to two months after that address, Biden is receiving grudging praise for bringing greater racial and gender balance to the highest levels of government - especially his running mate, Kamala Harris, the first Black woman elected vice president - but remains under careful scrutiny as to what those appointments lead to. “Especially at those moments when this campaign was at its lowest ebb,” said Biden, “the African American community stood up again for me. Heightened expectations of paybacks in terms of cabinet posts and policies aimed at improving the health, wealth and education of African Americans were stoked not merely by the usual quid pro quo of trading votes for influence, but by the former Delaware senator’s passionately stated commitment during his victory speech. Trump’s defeat by the former vice president in November has given way to calculated weighing of his appointments and policies as signals of what the incoming commander-in-chief will deliver to a constituency fed up with being taken for granted by politicians who woo their backing and then too often show them the back of the hand. The euphoria that greeted President Donald J. Now they count among his most cautious skeptics. Biden Jr.’s most loyal supporters throughout the 2020 White House campaign, rescuing his bid from the graveyard during the primaries and delivering big numbers to the Democratic nominee in the final election. Black voters were President Elect Joseph R. ![]()
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