If Vice President Kamala Harris is elected president , it will be the first time since 1988 that the transition of power will be within the same political party, but that doesn’t make the transition process any less involved.
Yohannes Abraham, former U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is leading the charge in assembling candidates to vet for a Harris administration Cabinet. Yohannes led the Biden-Harris transition team in 2020. He was hired to perform the same role for Harris in August, weeks after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
Abraham’s team includes Josh Hsu, Harris’s former counsel in her vice presidential and senate offices; Dana Remus, former White House counsel; Rachel Palermo, a former aide; and Lorraine Voles, chief of staff for her official office.
“In the beginning of October, you’re a month out, and you’re really wanting to make sure that you have the full vetting done, and you’re not contacting any candidates at this point,” Anne O’Leary, a senior adviser on Hillary Clinton’s transition team in 2016, told Notus. “You’re doing everything behind the scenes, all of the vetting.”
However, Harris’s transition team got a late start and is still in the early stages.
Harris has been rather hands-off in assembling her personnel and hasn't talked about who she is leaning toward considering tapping for Cabinet posts and other top jobs in her administration.
While attempting to keep a shroud of secrecy, names are still being dropped as viable contenders for a Harris administration.
Here is a breakdown of who the Harris transition team may have their eyes on.
Federal Trade Commissioner: Lina Khan
According to Notus, Harris’s economic adviser Brian Deese has advocated Harris to keep current FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan. She’s garnered a reputation for playing hardball with Big Tech companies, filing antitrust lawsuits against Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft.
However, many Democrats in the technology and finance space are campaigning for Harris to remove Khan. Billionaire Mark Cuban has claimed Khan’s effort to “break up the biggest tech companies” hampers the United States’s ability to be the best and most innovative in artificial intelligence.
White House General Counsel: Karen Dunn
Karen Dunn played a crucial role in Harris’s debate preparation. She is a top litigator who is currently defending Google against charges of orchestrating an alleged monopoly over digital advertising, and she is co-hosting an expensive fundraiser for Harris, the New York Post reported.
However, Dunn's position with white-shoe law firm Paul Weiss and her role in the Google litigation could pose problems for Harris if she indeed keeps Khan in her current role.
“It’s a conflict of interest if the government is indebted to opposing counsel,” Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, told the outlet regarding Dunn’s involvement in the fundraiser. “That’s why attorneys should not be allowed to negotiate potential settlements with the Department of Justice if they served as active bundlers, including fundraiser hosts, for that administration.”
Secretary of Treasury: Jeff Zients and Wally Adeyemo
Jeff Zients is Biden’s chief of staff and assisted in his 2020 transition. He is also being floated as a contender to lead the Treasury Department, according to the outlet. Wally Adeyemo, the current head of the Treasury Department, could also retain his position.
The Harris team is leaning toward retaining certain positions, partly because it fears the difficulty of getting new people confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate.
Going down that road, while politically convenient in avoiding an immediate clash with the Senate, would feed into the narrative that Harris's term would be an extension of Biden's leadership.
“The issue is that it continues the drumbeat of ‘what makes you different from Joe’ if you’re keeping the same staffers,” a person familiar with Harris's campaign told Notus.
Secretary of Defense: Michele Flournoy
Michele Flournoy was first floated as secretary of defense by Clinton in 2016.
Under the Obama administration, Flournoy served as the Pentagon policy chief, and back in 2020, many were hopeful that Biden would choose her, but that did not come to fruition.
Secretary of State: Chris Coons
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) has been rumored to be someone angling for a move across town. He has reportedly put his name down as someone who is interested in the secretary of state position. However, a spokesperson told Notus the senator and long-term Biden ally isn't looking ahead but is rather focused on getting Harris elected next month.
Back in 2020, Coons was named to be a top contender for secretary of state.
Foreign policy role: Pete Buttigieg
A source told Notus that Secretary of Tr ansportation Pete Buttigieg wants to be considered for a role related to foreign policy.
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A former Navy Reserve officer, Buttigieg was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014.
He and Harris are former rivals, dating back to 2019 when both of them spent brief periods as front-runners in the Democratic presidential primary contest. Buttigieg eventually flagged that the step from local government to the top job in the country appeared to be too large a leap.
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