Tom Perez

Thomas Edward Perez (born October 7, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the senior advisor to President Joe Biden and the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs from 2023 to 2025. Perez previously served as the United States secretary of labor from 2013 to 2017, the chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2017 to 2021, and U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights from 2009 to 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 United States elections, Perez announced his candidacy for chair of the Democratic National Committee in the 2017 party election. After a tight race against Keith Ellison,...