Patel ‘took the leap with Joe Biden because he believed in his vision’ of America.
President-elect Joe Biden has named Indian American Vedant Patel as Assistant Press Secretary as part of White House communications and press staff.
Patel is currently the senior spokesperson of the Biden Inaugural and has been a part of the Biden Campaign as well where he served as Regional Communications Director.
During Biden’s primary campaign, Patel served as the Nevada and Western Primary-States Communications Director.
Previously, he worked as Communications Director to Indian-American House member Pramila Jayapal, Western Regional Press Secretary at the Democratic National Committee, and Communications Director to Congressman Mike Honda.
Born in Gujarat, India and raised in California, Patel is a graduate of the University of California-Riverside and the University of Florida.
Patel is one of the 16 appointments to Biden’s White House communications and press staff.
“Restoring faith in government by speaking honestly and directly to the American people will be a hallmark of my administration,” said Biden announcing the team Friday.
“Our communications and press staff are integral to this effort and are committed to building this country back better for all Americans,” he said. “I’m proud to have them serve the American people in the White House.”
“I took the leap with Joe Biden when he announced because I believed in his vision for what this country could be,” Patel tweeted after the announcement.
“On Day one he and (Vice President-elect) Kamala Harris are gonna get to work to make that vision a reality. So honored to be part of this team…”
Patel joins a long list of Indian Americans tapped to be a part of the Biden-Harris administration.
They include Neera Tanden as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the first Indian American to get a cabinet level position in a Democratic administration, and return of Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General.
Maju Varghese, who steered Biden’s election campaign, has been named as the executive director for Biden’s inauguration as the 46th US President on January 20.
Three other Indian-Americans were named to lead the transition’s agency review teams — Arun Majumdar for the Department of Energy, Kiran Ahuja for the Office of Personnel Management and Rahul Gupta for the Office of National Drug Policy.
In addition, 20 Indian-Americans were appointed to the various transition teams and two others, Atul Gawande and Celine Gounder, to the covid-19 task force with Murthy as one of its three co-chairs.