AP sources: Biden picks Fudge for housing, Vilsack for USDA

WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary, according to four people familiar with the decision.

Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was just elected to a seventh term representing a majority Black district that includes parts of Cleveland and Akron. She was an early supporter of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and campaigned for Biden.

Her intended nomination was confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday by four people familiar with the decision who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid preempting the president-elect's announcement.

As news outlets started reporting her selection as HUD secretary Tuesday, Fudge said on Capitol Hill that it would be "an honor and a privilege" to be asked to join Biden's Cabinet, though she didn't confirm she had been picked.

"It is something in probably my wildest dreams I would have never thought about. So if I can help this president in any way possible, I am more than happy to do it," she said.

A longtime member of the House Agriculture Committee and a fierce advocate for food stamps, Fudge was originally discussed to become agriculture secretary. South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat who gave Biden a key nod of support in the primaries, had strongly backed her, saying, "It's one thing to grow food, but another to dispense it, and nobody would be better at that than Marcia Fudge.″

She also had the strong backing of progressive groups who touted her support for food aid and worker protections at meatpacking plants.

But her name was later floated for HUD as Biden's team focused on other candidates for USDA, including former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

Biden has said he wants a diverse Cabinet, and some Black leaders have said he needs to do more to achieve that. He announced earlier Tuesday that he had selected retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be the nation's first Black defense secretary.

Clyburn aggressively pushed Fudge for USDA but seemed to suggest earlier Tuesday that she may be under consideration for another position.

"Marcia Fudge is a tremendous candidate. I was pitching her for the Department of Agriculture," Clyburn said on CNN. "I don't know if that's where she will end up, but I feel certain that Marcia Fudge is the kind of person that should be in this Cabinet and I will continue to advocate for her."

She earned her bachelor's degree in business from The Ohio State University and a law degree from the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law at Cleveland State University.

Politico first reported the news of Fudge's selection.