Despite Very Tough Choices, Joe Biden Starts Cabinet Selection Process

After claiming victory in the November 3 elections, United States president-elect Joe Biden now has to build an administration that will help tackle the devastating coronavirus outbreak and its economic fallout.

To achieve that, he will have to first overcome the difficult task of satisfying a broad coalition of progressive or left-leaning, moderate, and more pro-market Democratic party factions with his Cabinet selection. Regardless of the difficulty in giving jobs to representatives of each faction while still maintaining a coherent approach to policy, the president-elect is moving quickly; his transition team has reportedly been vetting potential candidates for months.

With it looking increasingly likely that the Republicans will retain control of the Senate after the 2020 vote, the Democrat leader will find it hard winning approval for his (progressive) nominees to head federal departments and agencies. It is inconceivable, for a Republican-controlled Senate to approve the nomination of a progressive like Elizabeth Warren, a progressive Democrat who favours tighter regulation of the financial sector and big tech firms.

That means he may be forced to make a diverse selection of government officials to top jobs in the administration, analysts have said. “Biden will be somewhat constrained because Republican control of the Senate will necessitate nomination of more centrist candidates,” Signum Global Advisors said in a note cited by the Financial Times. “In filling his cabinet, Biden will give priority to technocratic experience, loyalty, and diversity.”

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Picking many centrists for cabinet jobs would please Democrats who expect Biden to nominate the most diverse Cabinet in history but would create problems with the more left-leaning and progressive wing of the party that wants an entirely progressive governance team.

The progressives have argued that the election results should not limit Biden’s agenda or cabinet selections, noting that Democrats could win back control of the Senate if they claim victory in two run-off votes in Georgia in January. They are particularly skeptical about inviting Republicans into the Cabinet as “activists want credible advocates for issues such as health care, climate, and justice,” said Alex Morgan, executive director of the Progressive Turnout Project.

Biden will be looking to hold together all parties with different set of priorities – pro-market Democrats, left-wing and progressive Democrats, Wall Street and Silicon Valley heavyweights that donated heavily into his campaign as well as Senate Republicans, whom he will need to confirm his nominees as the GOP may maintain control of the upper house.

This will be a very tough task. An argument broke out no sooner than November 3 polls closed on whether the Democratic Party had lost House of Representatives seats and failed to capture the senate because of the party’s promotion of Black Lives Matter narratives and the Green New Deal, a plan to tackle climate change that amongst other things seeks to end the use of fossil fuels and create environmentally friendly jobs.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, perhaps the most high-profile progressive, has warned that if the President-elect does not give major jobs to progressives, the Democratic party would lose the 2022 midterm elections. AOC as she is popularly known endorsed left-leaning Bernie Sanders during the primaries.

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The president-elect, whose camp has long declined to discuss prospects for Cabinet posts until after Election Day, pledged to unite the country during the campaign and reiterated the stance in his victory speech in Delaware. According to the vice president-elect, Senator Kamala Harris, Biden’s Cabinet would reflect the country, with women and people of color in leadership positions.

In an attempt to keep his coalition together and based on his campaign to have a government as diverse as America, speculations are that Biden will most likely nominate a mix of progressives, moderates, and even a few Republicans as well as include some fresh faces alongside longtime loyalists.