Cedric Richmond

He was elected shortly after his 27th birthday and was one of the youngest legislators ever to serve in Louisiana when he took office.

He served as the Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary and a member of the Ways and Means, House Executive, and Legislative Audit Advisory committees.

Cedric Levan Richmond (born September 13, 1973) is an American attorney, politician, and political advisor who is serving as senior advisor to the Democratic National Committee.

Richmond was previously a senior advisor to the president and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in the Biden administration.

Richmond was born in New Orleans in 1973 and raised in New Orleans East, where he attended public schools.

His father died when he was seven years old.

His mother was a public school teacher and small business owner.

Richmond graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College, and a Juris Doctor from Tulane School of Law.

He also completed an executive program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

While at Morehouse, Richmond played college baseball as a pitcher for the Morehouse Maroon Tigers in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

He represented New Orleans to the Louisiana State House from 2000 to 2011.

Richmond was elected and served as the Louisiana State Representative for the 101st district (Orleans Parish) from 2000 to 2011.

During a primary debate, Richmond accused Moreno of drug use, and she attacked him based on his disqualification from the 2005 New Orleans City Council "D" district election.

Later in 2008, the Louisiana Supreme Court suspended Richmond's law license for six months in a 5–2 decision.

It found that he had falsified a sworn statement claiming more than two years of residency in New Orleans's "D" district in order to be eligible for the district's city council seat.

Richmond challenged Republican incumbent Anh “Joseph” Cao for LA's 2nd congressional district.

In 2010, Richmond was elected to the US House of Representatives from Louisiana's 2nd congressional district for the first time.

Richmond was the first candidate in the 2010 elections to have President Barack Obama appear in a television ad on his behalf.

Most analysts considered Richmond a strong favorite to retake this seat for the Democrats, even in what was forecast to be a Republican year nationally.

A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district from 2011 to 2021.

His district included most of New Orleans.

He took office in 2011.

He was reelected in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020.

On June 9, 2014, Richmond introduced the Honor Flight Act (H.R. 4812; 113th Congress), a bill that would direct the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to establish a process for providing expedited and dignified passenger screening services for veterans traveling on an Honor Flight to visit war memorials that had been built to honor their service.

That year Richmond defended his Republican colleague Vance McAllister, who had become embroiled in an alleged adultery scandal.

It was a rare across-the-aisle gesture.

Richmond said that he associated the controversy around McAllister with "gotcha moments" in which the "two parties in this country have gone overboard...and taken joy in the pain of their supposed opponents".

Richmond was one of a few Democrats who voted to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline.

He is the fifth-biggest recipient of money from fossil fuel donors among House Democrats.

The League of Conservation Voters gave him one of the lowest ratings for any Democrat in Congress.

Richmond has been active in the Congressional Black Caucus, made up of African-American legislators who work together to have their views heard.

On November 30, 2016, he was elected chair of the caucus for the 115th United States Congress.

From 2017 to 2019, Richmond chaired the Congressional Black Caucus.

Beginning with his third term, he was the only Louisiana Democrat serving in either chamber of Congress.

In 2019, he was named the first national co-chair of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.

On December 18, 2019, Richmond voted to impeach President Donald Trump.

Richmond came in third place in the seven-candidate primary election for the Democratic nomination for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, behind U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson and television newscaster Helena Moreno.

On September 5, 2020, he was named a co-chair of Biden's presidential transition.

On November 17, 2020, Richmond announced he would leave Congress in January 2021 to serve as Senior Advisor to the President and director of the Office of Public Liaison, which Biden renamed the White House Office of Public Engagement.