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WILMINGTON: One of President-elect Joe Biden’s closest advisers tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday (Dec. 17), according to his transition team.
Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, who will resign from Congress to join the incoming Biden administration as senior adviser, tested positive two days after traveling to Atlanta to attend a campaign rally that Biden led for Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Reverand Raphael Warnock, Biden’s transition spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.
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Bedingfield said Richmond was not in close contact with Biden, Ossoff or Warnock, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It added that Biden underwent tests for COVID-19 on Thursday and the virus was not detected.
Biden has stayed close to home since last month’s election, and the rally marked the second time since Election Day that he left his home state of Delaware.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and U.S. Representative Elect Nikema Williams also attended the rally, but also did not have close contact with Richmond defined by the CDC, Bedingfield said.
Richmond, 47, began experiencing symptoms Wednesday, Transition said.
He was a key figure in helping Biden build on his own long-standing relationships with members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The congressman, who was first elected in 2010 when Biden was vice president to President Barack Obama, was especially important in reaching out to younger lawmakers who, like him, came to Washington later in the 78-year-old president-elect’s career. .
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Richmond will take on a public participation role in the Biden administration that will allow him to deal with Congress while targeting the black community and other minority groups. Richmond’s role will be like that of Valerie Jarrett in the Obama administrations.
Richmond, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, was one of Biden’s first high-profile supporters and served as his campaign co-chair.
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