Two of President Joe Biden’s nominees being considered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday have fought to earn votes before.
The committee will meet on Wednesday morning to consider former Florida Democratic Gov. Charlie Crist, who lost his 2022 bid to oust Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and return to Tallahassee for a second term, as U.S. representative for the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The panel will also review the nomination of former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), who lost his swing-district seat to Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in 2022 while serving as chairman of House Democrats’ campaign arm, as U.S. representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Maloney and Crist’s high-profile losses did not appear to deter Biden from nominating them or others to administration roles.
The Senate confirmed former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley as Social Security Administration commissioner in December, more than eight years after ending his 2016 presidential campaign following a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses.
O’Malley’s nomination was pushed through while the Senate was in session during Christmas recess, when Republican attendance was down to around 10 members.
Then there’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who beat Biden in the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire in 2020 before the latter locked down the nomination in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday.
Buttigieg immediately endorsed Biden upon dropping out of the primary, becoming a campaign surrogate before taking on the cabinet-level role.
While Biden may be boosting the careers of Democrats who recently failed at the ballot box, he has defended all four as qualified candidates at the time of their respective nominations.
Reports also emerged in late 2022 that Biden was exploring ways to bring former Virginia Gov. Terry McAullife into the administration despite losing his 2021 bid for a second term in the governor’s mansion to Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA). Ignoring the loss, McAullife is a prolific fundraiser with a deep Rolodex thanks to his years in Democratic politics, including leading the Democratic National Committee.
McAullife never ended up joining the administration, though his wife, Dorothy McAullife, took a job as a special representative for global partnerships with the State Department. The former Virginia governor, meanwhile, continues fundraising for Democratic candidates through Common Good, his super PAC.
The president’s cabinet does, however, include a number of former politicians with winning campaign track records. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the former Democratic governor of Iowa, is one of three governors in the cabinet; the others are Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, of Michigan, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, of Rhode Island.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge spent 13 years representing the Cleveland and Akron areas of Ohio in the House prior to being nominated to her current position. As did Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, representing New Mexico’s 1st Congressional district for one term before being selected for a cabinet post.
Mitch Landrieu, Biden’s infrastructure coordinator who is transitioning to Biden’s campaign, is the former two-term mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, who is frequently mentioned in political circles as a future presidential candidate.
Former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who left the Biden administration last year to lead the National Hockey League’s player’s union, was the mayor of Boston for seven years.
Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist with Mercury Public Affairs, noted as much to the Washington Examiner, “these are people who he knows through decades of experience and who have been close” with the president since before he ascended to the White House.
Reinish added that Biden and his team’s “number one priority is” answering the question of “are their hires going to be capable” in an effort to avoid the turnover rates that plagued former President Donald Trump’s administration.
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“There is always a contrast between Biden and his predecessor whether stated or not,” Reinish said. “The Trump news beat every other day, every other week was another firing, another person who walked off the job in protest, another person who was being pushed out, another skirmish between the Oval Office and someone who they hired to do a job. It was a constant reality show.”
“Biden has always prided himself on being a contrast to that disruptive dysfunction,” he explained, noting that the 46th president has avoided his predecessor’s turnover rates.