Joe Biden won't be sworn in for another 64 days, but the President-elect is already under pressure from activist groups to bring progressive leaders into his administration -- and close its doors to establishment figures with cozy relationships to Wall Street, defense contractors and the fossil fuel industry.
The pressure campaign has played out in public, with the release of open letters and lists of acceptable candidates for top Cabinet positions, via private calls with potential nominees, and on social media, where progressive groups have warned the incoming administration against reneging on Biden's promise to forge an aggressive new path in the fight against climate change.
Top progressives have mostly sounded a cautiously optimistic tone following the release of Biden's "agency review teams" and his quick decision to name longtime adviser Ron Klain, who has built bonds across ideological lines, as his White House chief of staff. But the cutting backlash in response to the appointment of Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond to a top West Wing post on Tuesday underscored the fraught nature of the relationship.
There are also potential fights on the horizon and the uncertainty surrounding control of the Senate could further complicate a detente that has largely carried over from the campaign. If Democrats fail to win both runoff elections in Georgia early next year, the body will remain under the control of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- and everything from Biden's legislative agenda to his Cabinet nominations would likely face partisan blockades.
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Richmond's installation as a senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement drew a harsh rebuke from climate groups, led by the Sunrise Movement.
"Today feels like a betrayal, because one of President-Elect Biden's very first hires for his new administration has taken more donations from the fossil fuel industry during his Congressional career than nearly any other Democrat, cozied up to Big Oil and Gas, and stayed silent and ignored meeting with organizations in his own community while they suffered from toxic pollution and sea-level rise," Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash said in a statement shortly after Richmond's move was made official.
There are also concerns among some progressives over whether the coalition has the capacity to speak with one voice on a broad range of issues, including arenas where it is less organized and engaged, like national security.
"That's one of the growing pains for the progressive movement, which is how do we organize to maximize our power? You have to do that by building collaboration," said Nina Turner, a former top aide on Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. "I just don't think we do that enough, not yet anyway. I'm sure that all of the different progressive groups probably have their list, and have been thinking about it, but we would be stronger if we came together and decided on a list and then went forward that way."
Lists of names -- and demands
The Progressive Change Institute, an organization with ties to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, sent a letter to the Biden transition team and made public a list of 400 names, each with a brief biography, that should be considered for key personnel roles at every level of government. Progressive groups Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement have also released a roster of preferred names for key leadership roles in the administration, along with a call for the creation of a White House Office of Climate Mobilization.
The director of the new office, an idea promoted by the Biden-Sanders "unity task forces," would report directly to the President and have the authority to bring together leaders from an assortment of federal agencies -- a position akin to the national security adviser, but with a mandate to address every aspect of the climate crisis.
"You really use that convening power and authority to move forward on this crisis, whether or not Democrats have the Senate," said Sunrise Movement political director and co-founder Evan Weber. "It's something that Joe Biden without having to go through the Senate. It doesn't have to be appointed. It's not like a cabinet pick that would have to be approved."
Among the group's top choices to run the office is Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who ran a brief but influential Democratic primary campaign. Some of his former aides and supporters went on to form Evergreen Action, a group dedicated to jumpstarting a "national mobilization to defeat the climate crisis."
"I think Gov. Inslee would really make a fantastic part of a Biden-Harris administration. This new position that we envision, this sort of special assistant to the president on climate mobilization, for us, would be the sort of dream location for him," Weber said.
The post-campaign posturing among both progressive organizations and the incoming administration is a stark reversal from what followed the election of Barack Obama in 2008, when the left largely demobilized and party establishment figures dominated the transition's selections for powerful insider roles.
"Progressives definitely have a seat at the table and the Biden team is serious about listening to all stakeholders, which includes progressives," Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, told CNN. "I think progressives are being listened to much more than in 2008 or would likely have been the case at this point in time four years ago."
Hauser pointed to the roles handed to Biden aides like Klain and the President-elect's longtime Senate chief of staff and 2020 transition chief Ted Kaufman as evidence that progressive priorities, like constraining the influence of Wall Street, are being taken seriously by Biden's team.
"The agency review team for Treasury and the Federal Reserve and other financial regulators reflect both Kaufman's history and what I think is Biden's true North Star, which is that he does not see himself as a Wall Street Democrat," Hauser said. "I don't think he does."
Naming Gary Gensler, a Goldman Sachs alum who turned on the industry and emerged as a top Warren ally, to lead the transition's Federal Reserve, Banking and Securities Regulators group was another victory for progressives -- and clear signal that the Biden administration is positioning itself to take a harder line against the big banks.
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