By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Despite her insistence that she intends to finish out her second and final term in office, Governor Gina M. Raimondo is reportedly under consideration for a position in the incoming administration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden.
Raimondo has repeatedly downplayed talk of leaving office to go to Washington, where national publications, citing unnamed sources, say she is a frontrunner to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
A graduate of Harvard College and Yale School of Law and Rhodes Scholar, Raimondo is a former two-term state General Treasurer who gained national attention and the distain of many state workers when she reworked state law including suspending cost of living increases to ease a growing pension crisis.
Raimondo came to the Treasurer’s office after heading a venture capital fund, and has led Rhode Island’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Raimondo’s relationship with Biden is uncertain, although she hosted him during his vice presidency when he toured a crumbling highway overpass in East Providence in May, 2016. There, he compared makeshift repairs to “Lincoln Logs”. She was seeking federal support for an ambitious RhodeWorks infrastructure repair program.
In 2019, she was an early supporter of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s brief candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, and only voiced support for Biden when it was apparent he would become the party’s nominee.
Raimondo is 49 years old, is married to Andrew Moffit, a former business consultant, and has two school age children.
