1. Thomas Edward Perez was born on October 7,1961 and is an American politician and attorney who served as the senior advisor to the president of the United States and the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs from 2023 to 2025.
Tom Perez previously served as the United States Secretary of Labor, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, and United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
Tom Perez was elected to the Montgomery County Council in 2002, serving as the council's president from 2005 until the end of his tenure in 2006.
Tom Perez attempted to run for the Democratic nomination for attorney general of Maryland, but was disqualified for having insufficient time as a member of the Maryland state bar.
Tom Perez was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley as secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
In October 2009, Tom Perez was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate as assistant attorney general.
In 2013, Tom Perez was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate to be the United States Secretary of Labor.
Tom Perez declined to run for re-election as chair in 2021.
Tom Perez was a GU Politics Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service in 2021.
Tom Perez then ran for the Democratic nomination in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election, but lost to Baltimore author Wes Moore in the Democratic primary.
Thomas Edward Tom Perez was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, to parents Grace and Dr Rafael Antonio de Jesus Tom Perez Lara, who had immigrated from the Dominican Republic.
Tom Perez is the youngest of five brothers and sisters, all of whom but Tom Perez followed their father in becoming physicians.
Tom Perez's father died of a heart attack when Perez was 12 years old.
Tom Perez attended Christ the King in Amherst, New York until the 8th Grade.
Tom Perez graduated from Canisius High School, an all boys Jesuit school in Buffalo, in 1979.
Tom Perez received his Bachelor of Arts in international relations and political science from Brown University in 1983.
Tom Perez covered the cost of attending Brown with scholarships and Pell Grants and by working as a trash collector and in a warehouse.
Tom Perez worked in Brown's dining hall and for the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights.
In 1986, while a student at Harvard, Tom Perez worked as a law clerk for Attorney General Edwin Meese.
Tom Perez later served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno.
Tom Perez chaired the interagency Worker Exploitation Task Force, which oversaw a variety of initiatives designed to protect workers.
From 1995 to 1998, Tom Perez worked as Democratic Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy's principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice, and constitutional issues.
From 2001 to 2007, Tom Perez was a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he taught in the clinical law and the law and health program.
Tom Perez was a part-time member of the faculty at the George Washington University School of Public Health.
In 2002, Tom Perez ran for the county council of Montgomery County, Maryland from its 5th District, which covers Silver Spring, Kensington, Takoma Park, and Wheaton.
Tom Perez served as council president from 2004 to 2005.
Tom Perez opposed the privatization of the non-profit health insurer CareFirst, a non-stock holding, independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association that provided coverage in Maryland, Delaware, Washington, DC, and Virginia.
Tom Perez lobbied for support on the county council and in the Maryland General Assembly against the sale of CareFirst to Wellpoint.
Tom Perez led the council to a unanimous vote against the acquisition, leading to the rejection of the merger by Maryland's Commissioner of Insurance.
On May 23,2006, after Curran announced he would not run for re-election, Perez launched his candidacy, in a three-city tour with former Maryland Attorney General and United States Attorney Stephen H Sachs.
Tom Perez was backed by labor groups such as Maryland's State Teachers Association and the Service Employees International Union.
Abrams argued that it was "absolutely wrong to say that Tom Perez met the 10-year requirement", after he was cleared by the Maryland State Board of Elections, and received legal advice from Attorney General Curran, who opined that Tom Perez's time as a federal prosecutor in Maryland seemingly met the requirement.
Tom Perez then shifted his resources to support Martin O'Malley in his successful 2006 campaign for Governor of Maryland.
In January 2007, newly elected Governor Martin O'Malley selected Tom Perez to run the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
In that role, Tom Perez led efforts to target Maryland companies who were engaging in workplace fraud, imposing new restrictions on the employee misclassification as independent contractors.
In May 2009, Governor O'Malley signed the act into law, with Tom Perez saying that the act would "ensure that employers who attempt to cheat the system, their workers and their competitors, will pay a steep price for their actions".
Tom Perez helped lead the reintroduction of a similar bill in 2007.
Tom Perez was a top adviser to O'Malley on Maryland's healthcare workforce shortage.
Tom Perez helped develop a plan relieving the chronic shortage of nurses in Maryland, allowing immigrants who have nursing qualifications in their home countries to have their certifications count towards becoming a registered nurse in the state.
The legislation was a central part of a plan to raise revenue to close Maryland's budget deficit, though Tom Perez was criticized by many in his own party who saw the measure as a regressive way to raise revenue.
Tom Perez commissioned a report led by the DLLR arguing that the legalization of slots would be necessary to preserve Maryland's horse racing and breeding industries, with new revenue helping to address the issues of public education and school construction.
On March 31,2009, President Barack Obama nominated Tom Perez to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice.
Tom Perez revamped Justice Department efforts in pursuing federal settlements and consent agreements under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Tom Perez oversaw the division responsible for the implementation, and training of local enforcement in response to the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.
In 2009, the Civil Rights Division under Tom Perez's tenure filed suit against a Herkimer County, New York school for "alleged violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972".
The Justice Department determined that a pattern existed of Mississippi authorities' failing to assess probable cause that unlawful offenses against the students had been committed, and that students were held in jail without the benefit of a hearing, a lawyer or Miranda rights; with Tom Perez claiming that "the systematic disregard for children's basic constitutional rights by agencies with a duty to protect and serve these children betrays the public trust".
Tom Perez released a 22-page report on discriminatory and racial biases against Latinos by the MCSO and Arpaio.
In May 2012, after the end of a three-year investigation, Tom Perez led his division in a lawsuit against Maricopa County, the MCSO and Arpaio, for violating Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Arpaio called the suit a political move by the Obama administration, while Tom Perez called the suit an "abuse-of-power case involving a sheriff and sheriff's office that disregarded the Constitution, ignored sound police practices, compromised public safety and did not hesitate to retaliate against his perceived critics".
Tom Perez successfully blocked the law from taking effect, after the Justice Department alleged that South Carolina had failed to prove that the law would not have a disproportionate effect on minority voters.
Tom Perez oversaw the Obama administration's efforts in challenging a 2011 voter ID law signed by Texas Governor Rick Perry, the second voter ID law consequently found to have violated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
On May 14,2010, Tom Perez testified to the US Commission on Civil Rights that political leadership was not involved in the decision to dismiss three of the four defendants in the NBPP case.
However, on March 12,2013, the Department of Justice Inspector General released a report stating that Tom Perez's testimony did not reflect the entire story, as AAG Perelli and DAAG Sam Hirsch were involved in consultations on the case.
However, the Inspector General found that Tom Perez did not know about these consultations at the time of his testimony, and therefore he did not intentionally mislead the commission.
However, because of his role as a Department witness, the Inspector General believed that Tom Perez should have inquired further on this issue before testifying.
In particular, they found that Tom Perez sent letters about list-maintenance enforcement in December 2010, so as not to be viewed as interfering with the 2010 elections.
On March 18,2013, President Barack Obama nominated Tom Perez to be Secretary of Labor, succeeding outgoing Secretary Hilda Solis.
Tom Perez's nomination was supported by labor groups, such as the AFL-CIO and the United Farm Workers of America as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Women's Law Center.
At his confirmation hearing on April 18,2013, Perez was questioned about his role in Magner v Gallagher and the NBPP case as well as the Obama administration's plan to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour.
Tom Perez began his tenure by holding several meetings seeking to implement the Fiduciary Rule.
Secretary Tom Perez met with stakeholders during new rulemaking and then held a conference at the Center for American Progress, where he announced he was implementing the Fiduciary Rule on April 6,2016.
Tom Perez regularly made 'house calls' or onsite trips to obtain personal feedback and listen to workers who shared stories of their experiences.
Secretary Tom Perez used the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 as authority to issue the Persuader Rule, which required an employer's attorney to publicly disclose advice given to persuade against unionization.
Tom Perez claimed that questions by the Donald Trump Presidential Transition team sent to the State and Energy Departments were illegal, but he said he was not aware of any similar 'blanket' probes having been sent to the Labor Department.
Tom Perez announced his candidacy for Chair of the Democratic National Committee on December 15,2016.
Tom Perez gave the keynote speech for the Maryland Democratic Party annual legislative luncheon on January 10,2017, in Annapolis.
Tom Perez promised not to take money from federal lobbyists, foreign nationals, or current Labor Department employees.
Tom Perez's candidacy was endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden and other Obama administration officials.
Tom Perez won on the second ballot with 235 votes, beating nearest rival Representative Keith Ellison who earned 200 votes.
Tom Perez is the first Dominican-American to chair the Democratic National Committee.
Tom Perez undertook a Unity Tour in 2017 with US Senator Bernie Sanders to promote the DNC.
Tom Perez refused to resign, citing the amount of elections Democrats had won since he assumed the chairmanship in 2017.
In November 2020, Tom Perez was reported to be a potential contender for United States Attorney General or Secretary of Labor in the Biden administration.
Tom Perez declined to run for reelection as DNC Chair in 2021, and Jaime Harrison was elected to succeed him on January 21,2021.
On June 23,2021, Tom Perez announced that he would be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Maryland in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election.
Tom Perez's running mate was Shannon Sneed, a former member of the Baltimore City Council.
Many labor groups issued early endorsements of Tom Perez, including the Amalgamated Transit Union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Communication Workers of America, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Service Employees International Union.
Tom Perez received endorsements from various members of Congress, including members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
On July 14,2022, Tom Perez's campaign announced that its workers had unionized with Campaign Workers Guild.
On July 19,2022, Tom Perez lost the primary, placing second behind Wes Moore, an author and US Army veteran.
On June 12,2023, President Biden named Tom Perez to serve as senior advisor to the president and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Tom Perez participated in White House press conferences in the aftermath of the March 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Maryland.
Tom Perez owns a home in Takoma Park, Maryland, with his wife, Ann Marie Staudenmaier, an attorney with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and their three children.
In 2014, Tom Perez received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brown University, an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Drexel University School of Law, and an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Oberlin College.