President-elect Joe Biden tapped Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo (D.) for commerce secretary Thursday, seemingly unconcerned by her low approval ratings and the administrative …
President-elect Joe Biden tapped Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo (D.) for commerce secretary Thursday, seemingly unconcerned by her low approval ratings and the administrative scandals that transpired during her time in office. Raimondo, the third least-popular governor in the United States prior to the pandemic, is slated to take the helm of the Commerce Department later this month. In an announcement Thursday, Biden lauded Raimondo for being the first woman to hold the office of Rhode Island governor and boasted of her work to lower the state’s unemployment rate. Costly missteps have tainted Raimondo’s tenure as governor. Despite multiple warnings from the federal government, in 2016 her administration rubber-stamped a massive overhaul of the state’s welfare-distribution program that left thousands without Medicare or food assistance for months. A scathing report on the state’s child-services department, meanwhile, slammed the Raimondo administration for not taking the proper precautions to prevent children from being abused or neglected. Since assuming office in 2015, Raimondo has consistently ranked among the least-popular governors in the country, according to Morning Consult data. She had the lowest approval rating of any United States governor in 2019, the same year she was elected chairwoman of the Democratic Governors’ Association. Two years into Raimondo’s tenure, the Justice Department launched an investigation into Rhode Island’s Health and Human Services Department after her administration signed off on overhauling the state’s welfare-distribution program with a new software system in September 2016.
