Former Maryland governor candidate, longtime Democratic politician Tom Perez joins White House as senior adviser to Biden

BALTIMORE — Tom Perez, the runner-up in the Democratic nomination for Maryland governor last year, is joining the White House as a senior adviser and assistant to President Joe Biden and will be the administration’s top liaison to state and local governments.

A former Montgomery County council member who became secretary of labor for Maryland and then the United States in President Barack Obama’s second term, Perez also has served as an assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights and chaired the Democratic National Committee.

He will take over the role of director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which works with governors and other officials to address local issues and implement federal policy. The office’s former director, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, recently left the post to run Biden’s reelection campaign.

Biden said in a statement that he’s known Perez for years and hailed his decades of experience across all levels of government.

“His perspective and relationships as a former county councilman, a top civil rights attorney, and Secretary of Labor will be invaluable as we implement our Invest in America agenda and continue to make our government work for the people and for communities across the country,” Biden said.

Running on his extensive resume and self-attributed title as a “GSD” or “Get Stuff Done” Democrat, Perez racked up a long list of endorsements and won over a significant plurality of voters in his populous home county in the crowded July 2022 primary.

He ultimately lost to now-Gov. Wes Moore, a political newcomer, by just over 2 percentage points — about 15,300 votes out of more than 671,000 cast statewide. He went on to vocally support Moore in the general election against Republican Dan Cox.