Who Joe Biden is picking to fill his White House and Cabinet
The Post is tracking his picks and names floated for the most important positions in the executive branch
This page will continue to be updated with more positions and candidates.
One of President-elect Joe Biden’s very first tasks will be filling the top positions in his White House and Cabinet. In contrast to President Trump’s notably White and male Cabinet, Biden has promised to be “a president for all Americans” and build a Cabinet that reflects its diversity.
Unless Democrats can win two Senate race runoffs in early January, Biden’s Cabinet picks would require approval from a Republican Senate. White House staffers do not require the same process and can begin work as soon as Biden is sworn in. We’re tracking the people who Biden has already named and the top contenders for unfilled roles.
White House chief of staff
Currently: Mark Meadows
The chief of staff is often considered the president's gatekeeper, shaping their schedule and presidential access. They serve as a close adviser and also oversee White House staffing. This position does not require Senate confirmation.
Named
Ronald A. Klain
Biden's vice presidential chief of staff from 2009 to 2011
Klain was appointed by then-President Barack Obama to serve as the White House's "Ebola czar" to coordinate the administration's response to that epidemic and most recently was a senior adviser to the Biden campaign. He was also chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore.
The choice for White House chief of staff is Ronald A. Klain, an experienced Washington operative who served as Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration. “His deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again,” Biden said in a statement.
With the coronavirus pandemic raging, Biden has also announced the members of his coronavirus task force. The 13-member team, staffed wholly with doctors and health experts, will be led by former surgeon general Vivek H. Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler and Yale associate dean for health equity research Marcella Nunez-Smith.
In making his selection, Biden is looking to appease factions of the Democratic Party from moderates to progressives and longtime allies to newer faces. The people he selects will ultimately be instrumental in carrying out his goals and setting the tenor his presidency.
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Agriculture • Defense • Education • Homeland Security • Housing and Urban Development • Justice • State • Transportation • Treasury • Press secretary • Other White HouseSecretary of Agriculture
Currently: Sonny Perdue
The Trump administration has authorized tens of billions of dollars in direct payments to American ranchers and commodity row crop farmers. Federal payments to farmers hit a record $46 billion in 2020, with trade mitigation payments and pandemic relief flowing swiftly to President Trump’s rural base in the South and Midwest. Trump’s other signature USDA initiatives have been regulatory policies aimed at reducing the number of Americans eligible for food assistance.
It is likely Biden would reverse erosions of SNAP and other food assistance programs, as well as restoring more rigorous school nutrition standards that were the centerpiece of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! effort. Biden has said he would support beginning farmers, pursue “smarter pro-worker and pro-family-farmer…policies,” and reward sustainable farming practices that reduce atmospheric carbon.
Potential picks
Rep. Marcia L. Fudge
Ohio congresswoman
Fudge has served as the congresswoman for Ohio's 11th District since 2008, chairs the House Agriculture Nutrition, Oversight and Department Operations Subcommittee, and ranks fourth on the House Agriculture Committee. She has endorsed Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) to be chair of the House Agriculture Committee and has repeatedly expressed interest in being agriculture secretary.
Heidi Heitkamp
Former North Dakota senator
A former senator from North Dakota, Heitkamp was considered a top pick for the role of Secretary of Agriculture for Donald Trump in 2016, and she is once again considered so for Biden. Having served on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, she is popular with conventional farm groups and has spoken about fossil fuels playing a role in the clean energy revolution. Heitkamp started the One Country Project, a nonprofit to educate Democrats on how to appeal to voters in rural districts. She is backed by Biden’s agricultural adviser, former secretary Tom Vilsack.
Rep. Chellie Pingree
Maine congresswoman
Progressives are urging Biden to choose Pingree, the organic farmer and House Agriculture Committee member from Maine who has introduced bills to decrease food waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming and support small meat processors. In a role typically filled by someone from conventional agriculture in the Midwest’s Farm Belt, she would represent the concerns of small farmers.
Secretary of Defense
Currently: Christopher Miller
Trump and Congress increased the military budget by removing the restraints on spending imposed by a previous budget deal. Sizable increases to the defense budget followed, including to pay for further investment in the creation of Trump’s Space Force and pay increases for the military. He diverted billions away from the defense budget to fund construction of the Southern border wall.
Biden's defense pick would be tasked with delivering on his promise of rethinking spending priorities and bring home "the vast majority" of troops from Afghanistan.
Potential picks
Michèle Flournoy
A former department official
Flournoy served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy during the Clinton adminstration and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under Obama. If nominated and confirmed, she would be the first woman to lead the Department of Defense.
Jeh Johnson
Former secretary of homeland security
A former homeland security secretary in the Obama administration, Johnson also served as the top lawyer in the Pentagon, and earlier in his legal career he worked as a federal prosecutor in New York City. Johnson’s name has also been mentioned as a possible pick for attorney general.
Secretary of Education
Currently: Betsy Devos
Under Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Education Department has rolled back some civil rights protections as well as Obama-era efforts to hold for-profit colleges accountable for poor outcomes. She’s promoted alternatives to public schools and tried to slash federal funding for education. Biden is expected to reverse all of that, with more money for K-12 and higher education, new and revived civil rights protections and a focus on racial equity.
Biden has said he will name a public school educator as secretary of Education, a stab at DeVos, who had no experience with public schools. Many expect that to be someone from the K-12 world. Among those talked about for the job include a handful of big-city school superintendents, such as Sonja Santelises from Baltimore, Janice Jackson from Chicago or Seattle’s Denise Juneau.
Potential picks
Rep. Jahana Hayes
Connecticut congresswoman
Hayes, elected in 2018, is the first Black woman to represent Connecticut in Congress. She sits on the Committee on Education and Labor and has sponsored some higher education measures. Before that, she was the 2016 National Teacher of the Year.
Lily García
Former head of the National Education Association
García recently stepped down as president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union. Before that, she was an elementary school teacher. She is friendly with incoming first lady Jill Biden, who is a community college teacher and member of the NEA.
Tony Thurmond
California state superintendent
Thurmond is California’s state superintendent, where he has pushed for educational equity, a goal Biden shares. In 2018, the Los Angeles Times endorsed Thurmond, saying he has “an unwavering commitment to at-risk students and a deep understanding of the obstacles they face.”
Randi Weingarten
Head of the American Federation of Teachers
Weingarten is president of the National Federation of Teachers, the second largest teacher union. She previously served as president of the union representing teachers in New York City, and was a high school teacher in Brooklyn. Nominating a labor leader would be seen as an affront to Democrats who favor teacher evaluations and other test-based accountability measures.
Secretary of Homeland Security
Currently: Chad Wolf
Under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security’s focus shifted notably from counterterrorism to immigration and border enforcement. Trump turned the nation’s third-largest federal entity into a powerful tool of domestic policy and electoral politics, using DHS to carry out a wide-ranging immigration crackdown and quell street protests in American cities.
Created after the Sept. 11 attacks to reassure the American public and project stability, DHS went through unprecedented leadership turmoil under Trump, with five secretaries in four years. Biden is expected to try to stabilize the department by returning its focus to a broad range of threats, including counterterrorism, cyber threats and the pandemic response.
Potential picks
Rep. Val Demings
Florida congresswoman, former Orlando police chief
Demings, a career police officer and former chief of the Orlando Police Department elected to Congress in 2017, was occasionally mentioned as a possible vice-presidential pick for Biden. Choosing her for the DHS secretary job could help assure some rank-and-file federal officers and agents worried that the new administration will sideline the big DHS enforcement agencies – such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – which Trump claimed were “his people.”
Alejandro Mayorkas
Former Obama immigration and homeland security official
Mayorkas is widely considered the leading candidate for the top job at DHS. Currently an attorney at the D.C. law firm WilmerHale, Mayorkas served as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during President Obama’s first term, and was promoted to DHS deputy secretary under Jeh Johnson for Obama’s second term. Born in Cuba and raised mostly in Los Angeles, Mayorkas’s experience navigating the politics of immigration enforcement and border security could be an asset to Biden if the issue remains a topic of intense partisan focus. Mayorkas’s nomination could run into trouble over a 2015 report by the DHS inspector general faulting him for inappropriately helping several companies obtain employment visas. Mayorkas refuted those findings.
Lisa Monaco
Former White House homeland security adviser
Monaco is a former federal prosecutor who served as White House homeland security adviser during President Obama’s second term. Picking her for the DHS secretary job would allow the president-elect to send a clear signal about shifting the department’s focus back to counterterrorism and domestic violent extremism. Monaco has been an adviser to the Biden campaign.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Currently: Ben Carson
Under the Trump administration, the agency gutted Obama-era fair lending and fair housing laws. The new secretary is expected to restore these laws and be a key player in carrying out Biden's campaign promises to expand affordable housing, increase the availability of Section 8 vouchers and tackle racial bias in housing.
Potential picks
Rep. Karen Bass
California congresswoman
Bass is a fifth-term California congresswoman representing south Los Angeles. She currently heads the Congressional Black Caucus and serves on the House Committee of Foreign Affairs.
Keisha Lance Bottoms
Atlanta mayor
Bottoms was an early supporter of Biden's 2020 presidential run and served as a surrogate for him on the trail. She was elected mayor of Atlanta in 2017 after serving on city council for eight years. Before joining Atlanta politics, she was a prosecutor and magistrate judge.
Alvin Brown
Former Jacksonville mayor
Brown served in various roles during the Clinton administration across the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce ,and Housing and Urban Development, including as adviser to then-secretary Andrew Cuomo. Most recently Brown was a staffer on the Biden campaign.
Maurice Jones
CEO of Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Jones served as the deputy undersecretary of HUD from 2012 to 2014 and as Virginia's commerce secretary under Gov. Terry McAuliffe. He currently runs Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which offers community development loans, grants and investments.
Diane Yentel
CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition
Yentel served as director of the public housing management and occupancy division at HUD during the Obama administration. She currently leads the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an affordable housing advocacy group, and has been an outspoken critic of Trump's HUD.
Attorney General, Department of Justice
Currently: William Barr
The Justice Department in the Trump administration most notably drew criticism for its leaders apparently bending to political pressure from Trump and getting involved in criminal cases involving the president's friends. Biden's Justice Department would probably seek to change that, restoring the department's historic independence on criminal matters.
Biden's Justice Department also is likely to focus more on forcing reforms at police departments through court and other actions. The Justice Department in the Trump administration had largely abandoned those efforts, positioning itself as defending the police from unfair criticism.
Potential picks
Xavier Becerra
California’s attorney general
Becerra is a former congressman who is now the attorney general for the state of California. He has drawn attention recently for the myriad of lawsuits he has brought against the Trump administration.
Jeh Johnson
Former homeland security secretary
A former homeland security secretary in the Obama administration, Johnson also served as the top lawyer in the Pentagon, and earlier in his legal career he worked as a federal prosecutor in New York City. Johnson’s name has also been mentioned as a possible pick for defense secretary.
Sen. Doug Jones
Alabama senator
Jones is a former U.S. attorney who won a special election to replace Jeff Sessions as the U.S. senator from Alabama after Trump named Sessions his attorney general. Jones recently lost his race to hold the seat to retired football coach Tommy Tuberville.
Sally Yates
Former Justice Department official
Yates is a former U.S. attorney who served as deputy attorney general at the end of the Obama administration and as the acting attorney general briefly after Trump took office. She was fired from her position for refusing to defend Trump's travel ban.
Secretary of State
Currently: Mike Pompeo
In the Trump administration, scores of veteran diplomats left after their loyalty to Trump was questioned and career employees were replaced by political appointees.
Under Biden, the State Department is expected to be at the forefront of reversing some key Trump-era policies and restoring the centrality of diplomacy in foreign policy and battered U.S. credibility. Priorities include rebuilding strained alliances with Europe, returning to a more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, corralling global efforts to combat climate change and possibly changing course with Iran if the U.S. re-enters the nuclear treaty Trump abandoned. They also are expected to maintain pressure on China over human rights and trade issues.
Potential picks
Antony Blinken
Longtime Biden foreign policy aide
Blinken is a longtime Biden confident and former deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration from 2015 to 2017. Blinken has decades of experience in Congress and worked closely with then-Vice President Biden as deputy national security adviser from 2013 to 2015.
William Burns
Former diplomat and State Department official
Burns is a legendary former diplomat who held numerous senior positions over 33 years at the State Department. He attained the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador. He was ambassador to Russia and Jordan, and deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration. He speaks Russian, Arabic and French. Since retiring from the State Department in 2014, he has been president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Sen. Christopher A. Coons
Delaware senator
Coons is a Democratic senator from Delaware who holds Biden’s old seat. A prominent member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Coons was a co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Human Rights Caucus. He has a strong interest in Africa, where the population is projected to double by 2050.
Sen. Chris Murphy
Connecticut senator
Murphy is the junior U.S. senator from Connecticut and an outspoken member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee focusing on the Middle East and South Asia. He was elected to the Senate in 2013 after serving in the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013.
Susan E. Rice
Former national security adviser
Rice worked closely with Biden during her time as President Obama’s national security adviser from 2013 to 2017. Prior to her job in the White House, she served as U.N. ambassador from 2009 to 2013 and worked in the State Department during the Clinton administration.
Secretary of Transportation
Currently: Elaine Chao
The Trump administration issued a set of weaker carbon dioxide emissions standards for cars and SUVs and took a largely hands off approach to dealing with new technologies like automated vehicles. The fight against climate change will shape the Biden administration’s transportation policies. It is expected to stiffen emissions standards once again, and promote the adoption of electric vehicles.
A grand bargain in Congress on infrastructure spending eluded the Trump administration, and reaching a spending deal to repair road and bridges and expand access to transit is expected to be another major focus for the new administration.
Potential picks
Eric Garcetti
Los Angeles mayor
Garcetti has been the mayor of Los Angeles since 2013 and served as a co-chair of President-Elect Biden’s campaign. In LA, he has overseen an expansion of the notoriously gridlocked city’s metro system.
Secretary of Treasury
Currently: Steve Mnuchin
The Biden administration is expected to prioritize a massive stimulus package to shore up the economy’s shaky recovery. Biden also campaigned on tax increases for businesses and some of the wealthiest Americans — issues that the next secretary will have to pursue.
Potential picks
Lael Brainard
Federal Reserve governor
Brainard is a Federal Reserve governor who served as a senior Treasury Department official in the Obama administration. She has broad policymaking experience, particularly during economic crises, as well as wide respect among international foreign ministries and central banks from her time as the department’s top diplomat. If nominated and approved, she would be the first female Treasury secretary.
Roger Ferguson
Former vice chair of the Federal Reserve
Ferguson is currently the president and CEO of TIAA-CREF and on the board of corporations including Alphabet and General Mills. He was vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and a governor on the board under the Clinton administation. He served on President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. If nominated and approved, he would be the first African American to serve as secretary.
Janet Yellen
Former chair of the Federal Reserve
Yellen was a Federal Reserve governor under both the Clinton and Obama administrations. She was the first female chair of the Fed from 2014 to 2018. Yellen's term as chair was marked by lowering unemployment, record highs in the stock market and low inflation. Despite this, she was the first Fed chair not to be reappointed after serving a first full term. If nominated and approved, she would be the first female Treasury secretary.
White House press secretary
Currently: Kayleigh McEnany
The press secretary is the mouthpiece of the administration, interacting with the media and the White House press corps to deliver the administration's updates and perspectives. This position does not require Senate confirmation.
Potential picks
Kate Bedingfield
Biden's deputy campaign manager and communications director
Bedingfield was deputy campaign manager and a frequent spokesperson for Biden's presidential campaign. She was appointed communications director for Biden in 2015. Under the Obama administration she also served as deputy director of media affairs and the director of response. After the 2016 election, she worked in communications for the entertainment and sports industry.
Symone Sanders
Senior adviser to Biden’s campaign
Before joining the Biden campaign, Sanders was a political analyst and commentator. She served as national press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential run. She would be the first African American to hold the job.
Other White House roles
Advisers and strategists play a key role in shaping the president's agenda. Under Trump, notable figures included Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. These positions do not require Senate confirmation.
Potential picks
Mike Donilon
Biden campaign strategist
Donilon is a veteran political strategist who has advised the president-elect for nearly four decades, including during Biden's previous stint in the Obama White House.
Steve Ricchetti
Biden campaign chairman
Ricchetti served as Biden's chief of staff during the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017 and was a liaison to the Senate under Bill Clinton. He spent years working as a registered lobbyist.
Rep. Cedric L. Richmond
Congressman from Louisiana's 2nd District
Richmond has been as a congressman since 2011 and recently served as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He's expected to be offered an influential role in the White House and has advocates including Biden ally Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.).
Jake Sullivan
Top policy adviser to Biden’s campaign
Sullivan served as Biden's national security adviser during the Obama years and was a senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.