People of Color and Women Make Up Almost Half of President-Elect Biden’s Transition Team

Diversity is one of the themes that has been central to the political conversation this year and President-elect Joe Biden‘s selection of Senator, now Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, started the process to involve more women and people of color on his team. According to CNN, Biden’s transition team is made up of mostly women and nearly half of the team are people of color.

President Trump still hasn’t conceded the office to Biden yet and the transition can’t officially start until Trump, not only acknowledges the loss but allows for the transition to start. In the meantime, Biden is gathering his team to start the process of obtaining staff for his administration.

After choosing Ron Klain as his chief of staff, Biden’s hiring has been mostly non-whites and women.

On his transition team thus far, people of color make up 46% of the current total according to new diversity data of the transition team provided to CNN. Forty-one percent of the senior staff are people of color and the majority of Biden’s transition staff, 52%, are women, and 53% of the senior staff are women.

Even the transition team’s advisory board is diversified: 43% are people of color and 52% are women. There are nine members of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board of 13 members who are people of color and five of those members are women.

“For months, the Biden-Harris transition has laid the groundwork for a Biden-Harris administration, and at the core of that work is an unrelenting commitment to diversity,” said Ted Kaufman, co-chair of the Biden-Harris transition. “As we continue working full-speed ahead to Inauguration, our diverse group of leaders and staff are reflective of America — upholding President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris’ belief that through diverse voices we can develop and implement a policy vision to tackle our nation’s toughest challenges.”

According to Business Insider, in 2016, Trump’s administration was 71% white men, while women and people of color made up about 19% each.