The liberal Black Church PAC is upset that presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s burgeoning slate of top-ranking appointments includes few Black nominees.
The group worked to win votes for Mr. Biden, particularly via its “Souls to the Polls” tour of the Southeast and, wrote on Monday to Mr. Biden and presumptive Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris to request face-to-face meetings with them and top officials from their team before 2020 ends.
“Our faith leaders and congregations literally put our health and well being on the line to ensure black civic engagement,” the Black Church PAC wrote in an open letter. “We are concerned about the lack of Black women and men appointments in senior administration cabinet positions. We need to hear and understand your plans to remedy this directly.”
The Black Church PAC said it knocked on tens of thousands of doors including nearly 4,300 in Georgia, sent 1.6 million text messages and made more than 43,000 phone calls to help Mr. Biden claim victory.
The Rev. Leah Daughtry, the Rev. Michael McBride and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright are among the Black leaders of the Black Church PAC’s effort to win seats at the table in Mr. Biden’s potential administration.
“The Black Church community did not sit on the sidelines through this electoral process, and we do not intend to sit on the sidelines of accountability, agenda-setting, and governance now,” Mr. McBride, co-founder of Black Church PAC, said in a statement.
As Mr. Biden continues to fill out his slate of intended appointments to key positions, he has announced his plan to select Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Whether the position of Ms. Thomas-Greenfield, a Black woman, is included in Mr. Biden’s anticipated Cabinet remains to be seen.
Former GOP Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush did not include ambassadors to the U.N. in their Cabinets while former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton did include the ambassadors in their Cabinets, according to the Congressional Research Service.
President Trump included Nikki Haley in his Cabinet as ambassador to the U.N. but excluded her successor Kelly Craft from his Cabinet.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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