Thomas Perez Quote

Thomas Edward Perez (born October 7, 1961) is an American politician and attorney currently serving as senior advisor to the president of the United States and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, holding both positions since June 2023. Perez previously served as the United States Secretary of Labor (2013–2017), the chair of the Democratic National Committee (2017–2021), and United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil
Rights (2009–2013).
Born in Buffalo, New York, Perez is a graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. After clerking for Judge Zita Weinshienk in Colorado, Perez served as a federal civil rights prosecutor for the Department of Justice, a staffer for Senator Ted Kennedy, and, in the final years of the Clinton administration, as the director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services. Perez was elected to the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council in 2002, serving as the council's president from 2005 until the end of his tenure in 2006. He attempted to run for the Democratic nomination for attorney general of Maryland, but was disqualified for having insufficient time as a member of the Maryland state bar. In January 2007. Perez was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley as secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
In October 2009, Perez was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate as assistant attorney general. In 2013, Perez was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate to be the United States Secretary of Labor.
After the 2016 elections, Perez announced his candidacy for chair of the Democratic National Committee in the 2017 party election. After a tight race against Keith Ellison, Perez was elected chairman on the second ballot; he appointed Ellison as deputy chair. Perez declined to run for re-election as chair in 2021. Perez was a GU Politics Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service in 2021. Perez then ran for the Democratic nomination in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election, but lost to Baltimore author Wes Moore in the Democratic primary. He joined the Biden administration in June 2023.