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.
