Raimondo introduced to nation as pick for U.S. Commerce secretary

Updated at 2:57 p.m. on Jan. 8, 2021.

GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO selected by President-elect Joseph R. Biden to serve as the 40th U.S. secretary of commerce.

PROVIDENCE – Gov. Gina M. Raimondo on Friday was introduced to the nation as President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s choice for commerce secretary, overseeing a sprawling federal agency that promotes job creation and economic growth, with a focus on technology and business but also issues that could include climate change.

Raimondo, 49, said in a tweet accepting the job offer Thursday evening: “Rhode Island may be small, but our economy is mighty on the strength of our small businesses and innovative technologies. As secretary of commerce, I will harness that same American ingenuity to create good-paying union jobs and build our economy back better than ever before.”

Standing at the dais in front of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris at the Biden headquarters in Delaware, Raimondo said she was thankful for the opportunity to serve the American people. “Thank you for the chance to work for the American people,” she said, noting that “The mission of the Department of Commerce is a simple one. It’s about creating good paying jobs and new opportunities.”

Raimondo said that she is driven by her own life, referencing her family’s journey from Italy, and her father being “pushed into an early retirement.”

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“I knew what creating jobs would mean for families falling on hard times,” she said, noting that Rhode Island’s economy needed a “shot in the arm to get back on its feet” when she took office as governor.

Raimondo said when she announced her decision to run for governor, Rhode Island had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, and “we now have the lowest unemployment in over 30 years. … We invested in our people, their skills, their opportunities and their dreams. … That’s the same vision, same faith in American workers, American entrepreneurs” that will be applied in her service as Commerce secretary, she said.

“I am excited to get to work on a national scale to help working families,” said Raimondo. “So, thank you for the opportunity to serve the American people.”

She’ll leave Rhode Island with two years left in her term as governor with the state still facing a raging pandemic, with a host of related health and economic challenges still to be resolved. She’ll be succeeded by a fellow Democrat, Lt. Gov. Dan McKee, a former Cumberland mayor and strong supporter for small businesses, many of which have struggled during the pandemic.

Raimondo intends to remain in office as governor throughout the confirmation process.

“I am honored governor that you are willing to join the administration and I am looking forward to working with you,” Biden said to Raimondo Friday. Biden touted Raimondo as the “daughter of a working-class family,” and said that she was a “successful entrepreneur,” who “works with employers,” has “created jobs on Wall Street,” and she “has put Rhode Island on a path to achieving 100% renewable energy.”

She’s served as Rhode Island’s 75th governor since 2015, when the state was still struggling to recover from the Great Recession. She was tasked with restoring economic stability while trying to stem the exit of workers and businesses to other states.

Her first budget was dubbed the “Jobs Budget” and focused on economic development. She created a list of new programs and initiatives intended to attract new companies and more jobs to Rhode Island.

With support from the General Assembly, economic-development efforts were reorganized under the R.I. Commerce Corp., with the goal of attracting, developing and fostering business in the Ocean State.

Between 2015 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ushered in its own recession, the state recorded gains in employment, and job growth, with the unemployment rate falling from 7.7% to a low of 3.4% in February 2020, just as the pandemic began to unfold. That was a 30-year low, according to state figures.

Since the start of the pandemic, employment cratered, and then slowly started recovering. The state’s unemployment rate rose to a high of 18.1% in April before dropping to 7.3% in November.

A series of economic incentives created by Raimondo’s administration to attract industry and investment included the Rebuild Rhode Island tax credit, which provides state financing for companies that want to renovate buildings or build new construction. It has awarded millions of dollars in the past several years, including for the I-195 Redevelopment District in downtown Providence, where the Wexford Innovation Center building opened.

The district, which runs along the old highway path of I-195, is intended to bring modern, high-paying jobs to the state in innovative fields.

More than 2 million square feet of development is now underway in that district, according to state officials.

Raimondo also created a revised Qualified Jobs Tax Credit, which provides incentives to companies that create new jobs that pay above the state median. The program pays up to $7,500 per job to the company annually. Infosys and Virgin Pulse are among the international companies that have located offices in Providence, attracted by the new credits.

Under Raimondo, the state also created a tuition-free program for students graduating from local high schools to attend the Community College of Rhode Island for their first two years. The program, called Rhode Island Promise, was funded in fiscal 2021 by the General Assembly for another cycle, for the students who will graduate in June 2021.

Raimondo earned national recognition by helping overhaul Rhode Island’s government pension plans, while serving as the state’s general treasurer from 2011-2015. She was the second woman to have served in that role.

Prior to serving in government, Raimondo worked in the finance sector, and was a senior vice president at the investment firm Village Ventures, which was backed by Bain Capital and Highland Capital Groups. Raimondo co-founded Rhode Island’s first venture capital firm, Point Judith Capital in 2000.

She has a law degree from Yale University and doctorate from Oxford University and was a Rhodes scholar. Following her graduation from Yale, she served as a law clerk to federal Judge Kimba Wood of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Raimondo, who is married with two children, will not be the first Rhode Islander serving in a presidential Cabinet post, according to the R.I. Office of the Secretary of State.

Former R.I. Gov. J. Howard McGrath served as U.S. Attorney General from 1949-1952 in the Truman administration. However, he did not leave his post as governor to serve in the Cabinet. He was governor of Rhode Island from 1941-1945, and U.S. senator from 1947-1949.

There has never been a sitting Rhode Island general officer who has left to take a Cabinet position during their term.

Gov. John Pastore was the last person to leave the governor’s office before their term was up, when he took a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1950.

Lt. Gov. John McKiernan stepped into the governor’s role for about two weeks, the shortest term in state history, after Pastore resigned and before Dennis Roberts, who won the November 1950 election, was sworn in as governor.

Cassius Shuman is a PBN staff writer. You may reach him at Shuman@PBN.com.

This story has been updated to include comments from Raimondo Friday.

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