Joe Biden is reportedly considering tapping former Republican senator Jeff Flake for a position in his Cabinet should he be elected president next month.
Officials close to the Democratic presidential nominee’s transition process told Politico that the former vice president’s team is vetting the backgrounds and resumes of several Republicans as they compile a list of candidates for potential high-level Cabinet positions.
Among those who could be tapped is Flake, who was a senator from Arizona from 2013 to 2019. Before his election to the Senate, he had represented Arizona in the House of Representatives since 2001.
In August, Flake joined more than two dozen fellow former GOP members of Congress in backing a “Republicans for Biden” effort is his first formal endorsement of Biden for president.
Before leaving Congress last year, Flake emerged as a vocal Republican critic of President Trump and his administration and clashed frequently with the president. He backed the impeachment effort against Trump and has said he will not vote for his party’s incumbent presidential nominee in 2020.
In 2017 when announcing his decision not to run for reelection, Flake slammed Trump’s “flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons”.
Trump in turn has called Flake “toxic” and had favorable words for his former primary opponent in Arizona.
“There may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party,” Flake said at the time.
Biden also reportedly considering several other Republicans for Cabinet positions, including former Ohio Governor John Kasich, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, and former Pennsylvania congressman Charlie Dent.
Biden is currently leading President Trump by about nine points nationally, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls.