Marty Walsh chosen as designated survivor for Biden’s State of the Union address
Walsh, the secretary of labor, would assume the presidency in the event of a catastrophic attack during Biden’s speech.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh has been selected as the so-called designated survivor for President Biden’s State of the Union address.
Whenever the president addresses Congress, the White House usually keeps one member of the Cabinet away from the Capitol in a secure location, while the other Cabinet secretaries attend the speech. The Cabinet member who stays behind is known as the “designated survivor,” and would become president in the event of an attack that wipes out the rest of the presidential line of succession.
Walsh is 11th in line for the presidency, following Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., President Pro Tempore Patty Murray, D-Wash., and the heads of seven other executive branch departments (State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture and Commerce).
This is the third time Biden has spoken to Congress and the first time since Republicans won control of the House in the 2022 midterms. Biden’s first joint address to Congress in April 2021 did not have a designated survivor due to limited attendance because of COVID-19 precautions. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who previously served as governor of Rhode Island, was the designated survivor for last year’s State of the Union speech.
Walsh previously served as the mayor of Boston and as a Massachusetts state legislator. It was reported earlier Tuesday that Walsh will be leaving the administration to serve as the head of the NHL Players’ Association.
The concept of the designated survivor emerged during the Cold War in the 1950s. The White House began announcing who the designated survivor would be in 1981, when Terrel Bell, secretary of education in the Reagan administration, was selected.
According to tracking from the American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara, the heads of the departments of Interior and Agriculture have been selected most often since 1984.
Those in the line of succession still must meet constitutional requirements to hold the presidency, meaning that Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who was born in Canada, and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who was born in Cuba, are not eligible.
The concept of the designated survivor has appeared numerous times in popular culture, including in the ABC television series “Designated Survivor” and the 2005 film “xXx: State of the Union.”
