SC Congressman Clyburn wants more Black people in top Biden administration jobs
House Majority Whip and South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn said in national media interviews this week he wants President-elect Joe Biden to appoint more Black people to prominent positions in the administration, Clyburn’s office confirmed.
Black voters were a key to Biden’s election.
Biden’s campaign was struggling after the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. But he won the primary in South Carolina where Black voters make up a majority of the Democratic electorate. Biden won the South Carolina Primary by almost 29 percentage points after Clyburn endorsed the former vice president.
Nine in 10 Black voters supported Biden in the general election, according to the Associated Press.
Biden has named Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a longtime Black diplomat, to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, who previously led the Congressional Black Caucus, will serve as a senior White House advisor as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
“From all I hear, Black people have been given fair consideration,” Clyburn told the The Hill. “But there is only one Black woman so far.”
“I want to see where the process leads to, what it produces,” he added. “But so far it’s not good.”
Some of Biden’s early Cabinet picks are diverse. He chose Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban American, to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Clyburn also has pushed for Jaime Harrison to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Clyburn told the New York Post he wants to see a Black person named as Agriculture Secretary, and backed Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge to fill the position.
The Department of Agriculture does more than tend to farming issues in plains states such as Iowa and Nebraska, he said to the NY Post.
“Rural America is South Carolina, it’s Mississippi, it’s Alabama. It’s Georgia,” Clyburn told the NY Post.
“Eighty percent of Agriculture Department’s work has nothing to do with farming,” Clyburn said in the interview with the Hill. “It is food stamps, nutrition, building schools in rural areas, making sure people have broadband ... [and] tele-health programs.”
Clyburn also told the NY Post Black rural votes heavily supported Biden.
“It was black rural voters who helped Biden carry Georgia in the general election,” the congressman also told the NY Post.
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 11:43 AM.
