PROVIDENCE – Gov. Gina M. Raimondo has been officially nominated as President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s commerce secretary, Biden announced Thursday.
Raimondo still has two years left on her term as governor. She’ll be succeeded by Lt. Gov. Dan McKee, a Democrat and staunch advocate for small businesses. McKee, a former Cumberland mayor, would serve out her remaining term.
Similarly, Gov. John O. Pastore was elected lieutenant governor of Rhode Island in 1944, and became governor in 1945, when J. Howard McGrath resigned to become U.S. solicitor general. Pastore resigned in 1950 to become a U.S. senator, leaving Lt. Gov. John S. McKiernan to assume the role until newly elected Gov. Dennis Roberts took office.
As for who becomes lieutenant governor this time around, a situation that has not occurred since 1997 when Robert Weygand, a Democrat, left office after winning a seat in Congress, John Marion, executive director at Common Cause, said McKee would be tasked with appointing someone to the seat.
“There would not be a special election,’ said Marion. “It appears that McKee (as governor) would be able to appoint someone to fill out the remainder of his term, but the General Assembly has a bill before it that would give the power to fill that vacancy to the General Assembly. It’s not clear whether that bill is constitutional, however.
“I would characterize this as an unsettled legal question,” said Marion.
Raimondo had been previously considered for other roles in the Biden administration, including as the administration’s health and human services secretary. At the time, Raimondo said she felt a strong responsibility to lead Rhode Island’s pandemic response but did not say whether she had been offered a post in the incoming administration.
In his announcement of the nomination, Biden said of Raimondo:
“Currently serving her second term as the 75th Governor of Rhode Island — the first woman to hold the position — she is known as an effective and innovative executive whose strong management brought her state back from what was, at the time she first ran for Governor, the worst unemployment rate of any state in the nation. A champion of creative, forward-thinking economic initiatives, Governor Raimondo launched successful workforce training programs to prepare Americans for the 21st century economy. Her small business loan fund has empowered 150 Rhode Island entrepreneurs so far — more than half of whom are women or people of color — to get new businesses up and running. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has worked to quickly bring the state economy back from the depths of the nationwide crisis. Governor Raimondo has expanded clean energy jobs and put Rhode Island on a path to achieving 100% renewable energy. She will be a key player in helping position the United States as an exporter of 21st century products and leader in the clean energy economy.”
(UPDATED to include Biden’s official nomination of Raimondo as commerce secretary.)
Cassius Shuman is a PBN staff writer. You may reach him at Shuman@PBN.com.
