A group supporting President-elect Joe Biden that is made up members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is arguing that Biden should appoint Latter-day Saints to prominent positions in his administration.
The group’s national director, Rob Taber, says that includes Latter-day Saints.
“There are thousands of presidential appointment roles in an administration. Most people tend to focus on the Cabinet, but there are all kinds of roles that are political appointments,” he says.
“There are Latter-day Saints historically who have served Democratic administrations, and there are people who are extremely well qualified for many of these jobs.”
The group is not arguing that Biden should pick Latter-day Saints to the exclusion of other applicants or should institute some sort of religious quota. It simply believes that there are many well-qualified church members who deserve consideration for the thousands of political appointments that need to be filled come January.
Previous Democratic administrations have done a poor job of picking church members to fill political appointments, Taber says, pointing to just a handful during the Obama administration.
President Donald Trump’s current national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, is a Latter-day Saint, as was former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and Trump’s first staff secretary, Rob Porter.
“Don’t write off Latter-day Saints because the perception is they’re mostly Republicans,” Taber says. “There’s no conflict between being a Latter-day Saint and serving in the Biden administration.”
The group plans to formally release a letter to the Biden administration detailing its argument next week.
