Two senators and a former member of the Obama administration are among the people who may be in contention to serve as the next secretary of state should Democrat Joe Biden win the presidency.
Politico noted that Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., are both vying for the job. Former national security adviser Susan Rice is someone else who could serve as America's top diplomat.
Coons, for one, lives in the same state as Biden and even occupies the Senate seat Biden held before becoming vice president. Coons has also positioned himself as a foreign policy expert, writing a recent article in Foreign Affairs. He's also trying to paint himself as someone who can reach across the aisle and work with Republicans to help craft America's foreign policy.
Coons sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Murphy falls farther left on the political spectrum and has been outspoken about his disagreement with President Donald Trump on just about every issue. He's also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has tried to display his foreign policy chops by speaking at forums centering on international issues.
In 2019, Murphy wrote an essay for The Atlantic titled "How to Make a Progressive Foreign Policy Actually Work."
Rice, on the other hand, served eight years in former President Barack Obama's administration — four as United States ambassador to the United Nations and four as national security adviser. And, during the Clinton administration, she was the assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
Republicans have criticized Rice for being a part of a "deep state" that tried to prevent Trump from winning the 2016 election. However, an investigation into her actions involving the unmasking of the names of American citizens caught up in government surveillance found she did nothing wrong.
According to Politico, other potential secretaries of state include former Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, former national security adviser Tom Donilon, and former Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.
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