President-elect Joe Biden is drawing from the senior ranks of his campaign to fill out an increasingly diverse White House leadership team.
Sources familiar with Mr Biden’s initial decisions confirmed on Monday that former campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon will serve as a deputy chief of staff, while campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana congressman and campaign adviser Steve Ricchetti will play senior roles in the new administration. Mr Richmond will leave his Louisiana congressional seat to fill the White House job.
The sources were not authorised to disclose internal discussions before a formal staffing announcement expected for Tuesday.
The new hires represent an initial wave of what will ultimately be hundreds of new White House aides hired in the coming weeks as Mr Biden builds out an administration to execute his governing vision. The Democrat will be inaugurated January 20.
Late last week, Mr Biden tapped former senior campaign adviser Ron Klain to serve as his chief of staff.
Ms O’Malley Dillon, 44, was the first woman to manage a successful Democratic presidential campaign. She is a veteran political operative who worked on both of former President Barack Obama’s White House bids.
Mr Ricchetti worked as a lobbyist for the health care industry, among others, before becoming Mr Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration.
Mr Biden’s campaign was staffed with many appointees from the Obama era and his administration is expected to be as well.
Less clear is the shape of his Cabinet, which will be subject to Senate confirmation. Since winning the election earlier this month, the president-elect has been hunkered down with Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect near his home in Delaware preparing for the business of governing.
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Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, welcomes then US Vice President Joe Biden at Zabeel Palace in March 2016. AP Photo -
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, meets US Vice President Joe Biden in Dubai in 2016. Reuters -
US Vice President Joe Biden meets with Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani in Arbil on September 17, 2009. Biden held talks in the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil to push Iraqi leaders for progress on stalled legislation ahead of parliamentary elections in January. AFP -
Delaware Senator Joe Biden speaking with an unidentified soldier inside a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle during a visit to Ramadi, Iraq, 06 September, 2007. AFP -
US Vice President Joseph Biden and his wife Dr Jill Biden tour the Nabatean city of Petra in southern Jordan on March 12, 2010. AFP -
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal welcomes US Vice President Joe Biden at the Riyadh airbase on October 27, 2011, upon his arrival in the Saudi capital with a US official delegation to offer condolences to the King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz following the death of his brother, Crown Prince Sultan. AFP -
Israel's President Shimon Peres shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden before their meeting at the president's residence in Jerusalem March 9, 2010. Reuters -
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden talks with soldiers at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq July 4, 2009. Reuters -
U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden talks with soldiers as he travels in a military vehicle to Iraq from Kuwait in this September 6, 2007. Reuters -
U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Chairman of the U.S Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, waves as he talks to Afghan children during a visit to the Ariana primary school in Kabul, Jan. 12, 2002. AP Photo -
US Vice President Joseph Biden shakes hand with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a joined press conference following a meeting in Baghdad on July 3, 2009. Vice President Joe Biden threatened today that the United States would politically disengage from Iraq if sectarian or ethnic violence resumes, a senior US official told reporters. AFP -
US Sen. Joe Lieberman speaks to Jill, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden as Sen. Lindsay Graham and U.S. Sen. John McCain looks on, during a surprise visit to Baghdad, on July 3, 2010. AFP -
Turkish President Abdullah Gul meets with US congressmen Joseph Biden, John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, and US Ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson in Ankara, on February 22, 2008. AFP -
US senator Joseph Biden is greeted by Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi while visiting Baghdad 19 June 2004. Eighteen Iraqis were killed and eight wounded in the Sunni rebel stronghold of Fallujah, hospital officials said, in an attack which local residents blamed on a US air raid. AFP -
US Senator Joseph Biden hosts King Abdullah II of Jordan and Queen Rania at a Senate Foreign Relations luncheon 08 May 2002, during their visit to the US Capitol in Washington, DC. AFP -
US vice president-elect Joe Biden is seen during a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad on January 12, 2009. AFP -
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari smiles at Joe Biden during a press conference after a meeting with and Curt Weldon, the head of a US congressional delegation of about a half-dozen members that also includes Rep. Joe Wilson, Rep. Jeff Miller, Rep. Harold Ford, Rep. Mark Green, David Reichert, and Senator Joe Biden, in Baghdad 30 May 2005. AFP -
US Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska listen on as Joe Biden of Delaware speaks to the press at a hotel in Baghdad 23 June 2003. The congressional delegation is touring the capital and attending official meetings. AFP -
Delaware Senator Joe Biden meeting with Iraqi tribal leaders in the Anbar Province in Iraq, 06 September, 2007. AFP -
The wife of US vice president, Jill Biden meets Syrian refugee children on March 10, 2016 at the Zaatari refugee camp, located close to the northern Jordanian city of Mafraq near the border with Syria. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden arrives for a meeting with Morocco's King Mohammed VI at the royal palace in Fez on November 19, 2014. AFP -
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit receives US Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden upon their arrival at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport on June 6, 2010, for a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak on the first leg of an African tour. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden are welcomed by Reem Al Hashimi, Minister of State and Managing Director for the Dubai World Expo 2020 Bid Committee. EPA -
US vice president Joe Biden speaks during a conference with young Emirati entrepreneurs in Dubai. AP Photo -
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri attends a meeting with Sen. Joe Biden, (D-DE), and other members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee 17 April 2002 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora during a meeting at the governmental palace in Beirut on May 22, 2009. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden and Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr walk past a US-made tank during a ceremony at the Rafiq Hariri international airport in Beirut on May 22, 2009. AFP
Mr Biden will begin rolling out his higher-profile Cabinet picks in the coming weeks.
Mr Richmond, a 47-year-old African-American, will take on a public engagement role in Mr Biden's administration that will allow him to deal with Congress along with a focus on the Black community and other minority groups. Mr Richmond’s role will be like that of Valerie Jarrett in Obama’s administrations, said two Democrats with knowledge of the hire.
A gifted choice
A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Mr Richmond was among Mr Biden’s earliest high-profile supporters and served as his campaign co-chair.
Mr Richmond was a key figure in helping Mr Biden leverage his own long-standing relationships with CBC members. The congressman, who was first elected in 2010 when Mr Biden was Obama’s vice president, was especially important in outreach to younger lawmakers who, like him, came to Washington later in the 77-year-old president-elect’s career.
Mr Richmond has scheduled a Tuesday morning news conference in which he’s expected to announce that he’s leaving his congressional seat.
Mr Richmond established a strong relationship with House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, claiming the South Carolina Democrat and highest-ranking Black member of Congress as a personal mentor not long after Richmond arrived in the House. Mr Clyburn’s endorsement of Mr Biden before the South Carolina primary was a seminal moment in the president-elect’s campaign after his disastrous start in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
Informed of the Richmond news on Capitol Hill on Monday, Mr Clyburn said it was “great.” He described Mr Richmond as “very gifted, very energetic.”
Mr Richmond remains friends with Republican House Minority Whip Steve Scalise from their days in the Louisiana Legislature.
