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The traditional post-election buzz about who might be hired to serve in President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet has started and Latino names are in the mix.
President Donald Trump began his presidency without Latinos in his cabinet.
Two of them eventually served, former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who resigned amid controversy and current small business administrator Jovita Carranza. Their mandates did not overlap.
According to polls, 66% of Latinos voted for Biden. Their votes were vital to his coalition of voters who gave him victory and helped him topple Arizona and hang on to Nevada.
Even though Biden lost Florida, a state where Trump won Latino voters, Hispanics in the state went bankrupt for Biden, 53% versus 45% for Trump.
With this support, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 42 Latino groups, wants Biden to appoint no less than five Latinos to his cabinet. During President Barack Obama’s two terms, he had a total of six Latinos in his cabinet.
Another group has formed to provide the names of Biden’s transition team to other Hispanics to put into the federal pipeline and to add names for Cabinet positions. The group is the Alliance for Latinx Leadership and Policy, with co-chairs from Texas, California and Colorado.
Biden’s transition team is not making the names of those considered public.
But Latino groups and leaders are submitting lists to give their preferences to transitional members and to ensure that a broad list of Hispanics is considered.
The NHLA worked with the Hispanic Congressional Caucus to identify potential Cabinet members and nominees for other positions.
Some of the names that are circulating based on discussions with different groups include California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as the United States Attorney General or head of the Department of Homeland Security.
Becerra, who served for 24 years in the House, led Democratic challenges against executive orders and initiatives of the Trump administration, suing the president over healthcare, gun control, environmental policies and Moreover.
Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has also been appointed attorney general. He was head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division under President Barack Obama, overseeing the administration’s crackdown on abusive police services, and he also served as a labor secretary.
His current job as president of the Democratic Party would make it more difficult to gain access to the post of attorney general, which is supposed to be a politically independent post, due to his partisan work. Perez was also mentioned for the Secretary of Labor.
Ali Mayorkas, former deputy secretary of DHS and former director of citizenship and immigration services for the Obama administration, is another name proposed for the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Another name for the DHS secretary is Louis Caldera, the only Latino secretary in the military. He was also director of the White House military office under Obama.
Representative Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, chair of the House Natural Resource Committee and progressive, was nominated as the choice to lead the Home Office, while Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, who oversaw the departments of the health and aging of its state, is proposed for health and human services or energy.
Biden said he would choose a teacher to head the education department. The Latinos mentioned for this position are Lily Eskelsen-Garcia, a teacher from Utah and former president of the National Education Association, and Pedro Rivera, former secretary of education from Pennsylvania.
Julián Castro, the only major Latino presidential candidate and former housing and urban development secretary under Obama, has been mentioned as a potential choice for work, commerce, Ambassador to the United Nations, HUD or Consumer Financial Protection. Office.
California Representative Jimmy Gomez has been nominated as a possible candidate to head the Department of Labor or be a United States Trade Representative. Gomez is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, the expert group that drafts tax laws, and has served on a trade task force created by House President Nancy Pelosi to negotiate the states agreement. -United-Mexico-Canada, which replaced North American free trade. Agreement.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was mentioned as secretary of transportation.
Any candidate who occupies an elected position will mean finding a replacement. Democrats will have a smaller majority in the US House and the loss of a House member would mean special elections for the substitutes.
The NHLA urged Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in a letter to place more Latinos in advisory boards, commissions and other positions in the federal government, including the judiciary, as well as in government jobs.
Hispanics make up about 8.4% of federal staff, according to the NHLA. Latino groups say they want that number to rise to around 20%, which roughly matches Hispanics’ share of the U.S. population.
The coalition said in the letter that the Biden administration “should have a strong Hispanic presence at all levels, to fully reflect the diversity of our nation’s population and within Latin communities, including gender, race, sexual orientation and ethnicity.
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