Status and expertise: A typology of US presidential transition team members

Abstract

Despite advising on thousands of important decisions, who serves on presidential transition teams in the United States is largely unknown. The secretive and transient nature of transition planning explains why this is the case, but also reinforces why it is important to have a better understanding of who a president-elect might choose at this critical moment of the transfer of power. This article develops a theory of the transition team as well as a typology based on two factors: expertise and status. Original interviews with members of the 2020–2021 Biden–Harris transition team then demonstrate the utility of this typology for better understanding the transition period.