List of United States political appointments across party lines
United States presidents typically fill their Cabinets and other appointive positions with people from their own political party. The first Cabinet formed by the first president, George Washington, included some of Washington's political opponents, but later presidents adopted the practice of filling their Cabinets with members of the president's party.[1]
Appointments across party lines are uncommon. Presidents may appoint members of a different party to high-level positions in order to reduce partisanship or improve cooperation between the political parties.[2] Also presidents often appoint members of a different party because they need Senate confirmation for many of these positions, and at the time of appointment the Senate was controlled by the opposition party of the president.[2] Many of the cross-partisan nominees are often moderates within their own parties.[2]
This is a list of people appointed to high-level positions in the United States federal government by a president whose political party affiliation was different from that of the appointee. The list includes executive branch appointees and independent agency appointees. Independent or nonpartisan appointees, nominally apolitical appointments (such as Article III judges and military officers), and members of explicitly bipartisan commissions are not included. A third party member has never been appointed.
List of appointees
‡ Person was an appointee of the previous administration and was reappointed or retained by the President.
Other notable appointments that crossed party lines
- President Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, asked Charles Lee, a Federalist, to be appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, appointed Stephen Field, a Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, appointed Samuel Blatchford, a Republican, as Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, appointed Daniel Clark, a Republican, as Judge on the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire.
- President Benjamin Harrison, a Republican, appointed Howell Edmunds Jackson, a Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President William Howard Taft, a Republican, appointed Horace Harmon Lurton, a Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President William Howard Taft, a Republican, appointed Edward Douglass White, a Democrat, as Chief Justice of the United States.
- President William Howard Taft, a Republican, appointed Joseph Rucker Lamar, a Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Warren G. Harding, a Republican, appointed Pierce Butler, a Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Herbert Hoover, a Republican, appointed Benjamin N. Cardozo, a prominent Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, appointed Harlan F. Stone, a Republican, as Chief Justice of the United States.
- President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, appointed U.S. Senator Harold Hitz Burton, a Republican, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, appointed William J. Brennan Jr., a Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Richard Nixon, a Republican, appointed Walter Minnick as a staff assistant and deputy assistant director for the Office of Management and Budget before he was elected to Congress as a Democrat.
- President Richard Nixon, a Republican, appointed Donald S. Russell, a former U.S. senator and Democrat, as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
- President Richard Nixon, a Republican, appointed Walter R. Mansfield, a Democrat, as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- President Richard Nixon, a Republican, nominated Clement Haynsworth, a Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Richard Nixon, a Republican, appointed Lewis F. Powell Jr., a lifelong Democrat, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, appointed Frank Minis Johnson, a Republican, as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
- President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, appointed Otto Richard Skopil Jr., a Republican, as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
- President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, appointed U.S. Representative Sam B. Hall Jr., a Democrat, as Judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
- President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, appointed Kimba Wood, a Democrat, as Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; she was later an unsuccessful nominee of President Clinton to be United States attorney general.
- President George H. W. Bush, a Republican, appointed Sonia Sotomayor, a Democrat, as Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, appointed Maryanne Trump Barry, a Republican, as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
- President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, nominated Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, a Republican, as Secretary of Defense.
- President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, nominated Governor of Massachusetts William Weld, a Republican, as United States ambassador to Mexico.
- U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, a Democrat, appointed John Danforth, a Republican, to lead an investigation into the FBI's role in the 1993 Waco Siege.
- President George W. Bush, a Republican, appointed Philip Ray Martinez, a Democrat, as a U.S. federal judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.[16]
- President Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, a Republican, as United States Secretary of Commerce.
- President Barack Obama, a Democrat, appointed Matthew W. Brann, a Republican, as a U.S. federal judge on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
- President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Nellie Liang, a Democrat, to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
- President Donald Trump, a Republican, appointed Susan Paradise Baxter, a Democrat, as a U.S. federal judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Notes
- Johnson was an 1864 vice-presidential running mate, the 16th Vice President of the United States of America, and the 17th President of the United States of America (1865). With the exception of Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller, vice presidents are elected and not appointed. Abraham Lincoln and Johnson ran as members of the National Union Party and not as a Republican and a Democrat.
- Appointee was a Democrat at the beginning of this tenure.
References
- Mr. Wilson's Cabinet; Will Be Sagacious Men, But Not Political Experts, The New York Times, November 7, 1912
- William S. Cohen, Across Party Lines, Washington Post, December 17, 2000
- Hugh Robert Wilson (1885–1946): Foreign Service officer
- Wilson, Hugh R., Pa-roots.org
- "Marriner Eccles: Father of the Modern Federal Reserve" (PDF). Center for Financial Stability. September 3, 2014.
- SIX FOR THE KENNEDY CABINET, Time, December 26, 1960.
- Hodgson, Godfrey. Obituary: McGeorge Bundy. The Independent, September 18, 1996.
- McGeorge Bundy. jfklibrary.org
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 12, 2010. Retrieved December 25, 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- Dana Priest, An 'Outsider' Set to Take Over Pentagon, Washington Post, Wednesday, January 22, 1997; Page A21. "Although other presidents have crossed party lines to fill the top defense post, Cohen ... would be the first Republican politician to serve a Democratic president in the position."
- Tapper, Jake. Losing his religion? Negotiating a bill through Congress, Bush's faith czar expresses frustration with his own White House Archived March 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Salon.com, June 5, 2001.
- Becker, Elizabeth. PUBLIC LIVES; A McGovern Liberal Who's Content to Stick to the Label. Nytimes.com, July 23, 2001.
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This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress document: "MILLER, Zell Bryan". "member, American Battle Monuments Commission, 2005–" - Rosenberg, Matthew; Haberman, Maggie (November 16, 2016). "Michael Flynn, Anti-Islamist Ex-General, Offered Security Post, Trump Aide Says". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
- "Ivanka and Jared register as Republicans: Now people like us "feel comfortable" being part of GOP". Salon.com. March 3, 2020.
- Philip Martinez Votesmart.org
Key
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