It’s been a busy week in the Senate, as we have now seen three more cabinet confirmations. So far we have covered six of the previous confirmations for cabinet members, and today three more will be added to that list. Over the past 7 days we have seen Jennifer Granholm be confirmed as Energy Secretary, Miguel Cardona as Education Secretary, and Gina Raimondo as Commerce Secretary. Without any further discussion, let’s get into the background of these three individuals.
The first person we will talk about is Jennifer Granholm. The vote for her confirmation was 64–35, with one senator not voting. Granholm, 62, has had a very accomplished career, including the breaking of some records. She was born in Canada, but then moved to California when she was young. After her school years she tried to start an acting career for herself, but gave up by age 21. After that she took a few different jobs, before going to Harvard Law School, where she got her degree. She would then take up multiple lawyer positions in the state of Michigan. Eventually, she made her way up to the position of Attorney General in Michigan, being the first woman to do so in the state’s history. She wouldn’t stop breaking records though, as four years after that she became the governor of Michigan, again being the first woman to do so. She would serve two terms as governor, before spending the years leading up to this year’s confirmation promoting clean energy through a number of different jobs and positions. Her main goal as Secretary of Energy is to help the country smoothly transition away from the use of fossil fuels, and instead turn to energy sources such as wind and solar energy. Beyond this, she also intends to make sure that the jobs lost from the phasing out of fossil fuels get replaced with new jobs surrounding these new energy sources.
Next up we have Miguel Cardona as Secretary of Education. The vote to see him into his position was 64–33. Cardona is 45 years old and has spent a lot of his years at the very heart of education, that being school itself. He was born in Connecticut to Puerto Rican parents, meaning that his first language was spanish. Cardona would have trouble learning english as he got into kindergarten, but eventually managed to overcome that barrier. After graduating high school, he went on to get a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Central Connecticut State University. He then followed that up with a Masters of Science degree in bilingual and bicultural education from the University of Connecticut, (UConn). He rounded the whole thing out with a doctorate in education as well. As far as his career goes, he spent many years working in school districts: working as a fourth grade teacher, a principal of an elementary school, an assistant superintendent, and an adjunct professor at UConn in the department of educational leadership. In 2019, he was selected as the Commissioner of Education in Connecticut, being the first Latino person to hold the position. For the time-being, Cardona’s main goal is to help achieve president Biden’s goal of getting all elementary schools opened up five days a week within the president’s first 100 days.
We finish off the list for today with Gina Raimondo, as she takes the position of Secretary of Commerce. Raimondo received the greatest amount of support from the Senate out of the three discussed here, being approved with a vote of 84–15. Raimondo is 49 years old, and just like the other two, she has been very successful over the years. She has a number of college degrees including: a bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, a Master of Arts degree and Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford, and a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School. After a few years of holding different executive-level positions, Raimondo was elected for the position of General Treasurer of Rhode Island. She held that position until 2014, when she then put her name in Rhode Island’s history by becoming the state’s first female governor. She served from then until her resignation this month to take over the position of Commerce Secretary. In her time as governor, she consistently lowered taxes, raised the state’s minimum wage to $11.50, and made community colleges tuition-free. Despite these accomplishments, she always fell very low in the approval ratings for governors across the country, including certain points when she was at the bottom of the list. Despite this, when Covid-19 struck the country, she received a 76 percent approval rating last spring for her handling of the pandemic. In her new position, Raimondo will be responsible for communicating with communities, businesses, universities and workers to try and create a balanced and flowing economy that includes growth and job creation. She will also have her hand in policy surrounding technology and climate change.
At this time there is still more to come in the way of confirmations. Specifically, we are still waiting on 10 cabinet-level positions to be filled. With that being said, as these positions do get filled, you can be sure that there will be new articles that come from us here at Blind Boys Politics, so stay tuned for those, along with any of our other articles that may catch your eye. Have a good weekend everybody.
