Rep. Cedric Richmond to serve in Biden administration, resign from Congress

Rep. Cedric Richmond is joining the Biden administration as a senior adviser to President-elect Joe Biden in the White House Office of Public Engagement, leaving his seat in the House of Representatives, it was announced Tuesday.

The move comes after Richmond, D-La., served as national co-chairman of the Biden-Harris campaign. He currently is serving as a co-chair of the Biden-Harris transition team.

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"The future has a habit of arriving unannounced, and I am here to announce the hardest decision of my life,” Richmond said Tuesday. “Before Jan. 20, I will resign my seat in the United State Congress and take a position in the Biden-Harris administration.”

Richmond has represented Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District since 2011, serving on the House Ways and Means, Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees, and as the Democratic assistant to the majority whip. Richmond was also a member of the New Democratic Coalition and served as the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

The Biden transition team called Richmond a “leader in helping to enact landmark criminal justice reform,” and ensuring that his constituents were “prepared for emergencies and natural disasters” through his oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The announcement comes as Biden announced nine senior staffers he will work with in the White House after he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021. The list includes some longtime Biden aides and advisers who worked with the president-elect during his decades as a senator and his eight years as vice president in the Obama administration. The group also includes some of the top members of Biden’s presidential campaign.

"I am proud to announce additional members of my senior team who will help us build back better than before. America faces great challenges, and they bring diverse perspectives and a shared commitment to tackling these challenges and emerging on the other side a stronger, more united nation," Biden said in a statement.

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Ron Klain, who Biden named last week as his incoming White House chief of staff, highlighted that “President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris have an ambitious and urgent agenda for action. The team we have already started to assemble will enable us to meet the challenges facing our country on day one.”

Announced on Tuesday are Biden-Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon as deputy White House chief of staff, senior Biden campaign strategist and longtime political adviser Mike Donilon as senior adviser to the president, Biden-Harris campaign chairman and longtime Biden adviser and aide Steve Ricchetti as counselor to the president, and Biden-Harris general counsel Dana Remus as counsel to the president.

Biden-Harris deputy campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who served as chief of staff to Sen. Harris’ presidential campaign, will join as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Biden campaign traveling chief of staff and longtime Biden aide Annie Tomasini will be director of Oval Office operations.

Anthony Bernal, a deputy campaign manager and chief of staff to Jill Biden during the campaign, will serve as senior adviser to the incoming first lady. And Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, a partner at the law firm of Winston and Strawn who served as U.S. ambassador to Uruguay and as deputy assistant secretary of state during the Obama administration, will serve as Jill Biden’s chief of staff.

Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and John Roberts contributed to this report.