Thomas Perez

Thomas Perez

Thomas Edward Perez (born October 7, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee from February 2017 until January 2021. Perez was previously Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (2009–2013) and United States Secretary of Labor (2013–2017). He was a GU Politics Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service in 2021.Born in Buffalo, New York, Perez is a graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He clerked for Judge Zita Weinshienk in Colorado prior to serving as a federal civil rights prosecutor for the Department of Justice. He next worked for Senator Ted Kennedy and then served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services in the final years of the Clinton administration. Perez was then elected to the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council in 2002, serving as the council's president from 2005, until the end of his tenure in 2006. He attempted to run for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of Maryland, but was disqualified for not having sufficient time as a member of the Maryland state bar. Perez was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley to serve as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation in January 2007, until his October 2009 confirmation by the United States Senate as Assistant Attorney General. In 2013, Perez was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the United States Secretary of Labor, replacing outgoing Secretary Hilda Solis. After the 2016 elections, Perez announced his candidacy for Chair of the Democratic National Committee in the 2017 party election. After a tight race against Keith Ellison, Perez was elected Chairman on the second ballot and immediately appointed Ellison as deputy chair. Perez declined to run for re-election in 2021, and Jaime Harrison was elected to succeed Perez on January 21, 2021. In June 2021, Perez announced that he would be running for the Democratic nomination in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election, but lost to Baltimore author Wes Moore in the Democratic primary.

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