Josh Pitcock

Last updated
Katherine A. Seaman
(m. 2007)
Josh Pitcock
Josh Pitcock (cropped).jpg
Chief of Staff to the Vice President
In office
January 20, 2017 July 28, 2017
Education DePauw University (BA)
Wake Forest University (JD)

Joshua Matthew Pitcock is an American political operative who served as chief of staff to Mike Pence, the Vice President of the United States, from January 2017 to July 2017. Pitcock has also been Assistant to the President. He was a member of Donald Trump's presidential transition team. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

In 1994, Pitcock graduated from Anderson High School in Anderson, Indiana. Pitcock was a political science major and Asian Studies minor at DePauw University, where he was a diver. He graduated from there in 1998. He went on to earn a J.D. degree from Wake Forest University. [2] [3]

Career

Pitcock served as an aide to Mike Pence during his time in the United States House of Representatives and eventually became his chief of staff there. After Pence was elected governor of Indiana in 2012, Pitcock stayed in Washington, D.C. during Pence's governorship, serving as the state's lobbyist. Pitcock served as a senior policy adviser to Pence throughout the campaign and the transition. Having navigated the Hill with Pence before, he was seen as the natural choice to help Pence in his expected role as liaison between Congressional Republicans and the president. [4]

Trump presidential transition team

Pitcock was a member of Donald Trump's presidential transition team. The transition team was a group of around 100 aides, policy experts, government affairs officials, and former government officials who were tasked with vetting, interviewing, and recommending individuals for top cabinet and staff roles in Trump's administration. He was part of the leadership staff.

Chief of Staff to the Vice President

In January 2017, Pitcock was appointed as Pence's chief of staff. [5] Pitcock's tenure in the White House was always meant to be temporary, as he stayed on through the transition period and the first few months of the Trump administration, before stepping down during the summer. [6] He was succeeded in the position by Nick Ayers, another longtime Pence advisor. [7] In October 2017, Pitcock was appointed vice president of government affairs at Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation based in California. [8]

Personal life

Pitcock married Katherine A. Seaman on June 30, 2007, in Washington, D.C. [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Pence</span> Vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021

Michael Richard Pence is an American politician who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 50th governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Hagin</span> American politician (born 1956)

Joseph Whitehouse Hagin II is an American political aide who served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018, a role he also served in for President George W. Bush from 2001 until July 2008. In September 2008, he was interim CEO of Jet Support Services Inc. Joe Hagin co-founded Command Consulting Group in April 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Ayers</span> American political strategist (born 1982)

James Nicholas Ayers is an American political strategist and consultant who served as Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence between July 2017 and January 2019. He had previously served as national chairman for Pence's vice-presidential campaign in 2016, and as the former executive director of the Republican Governors Association from 2007 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection</span>

This article lists potential candidates for the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 2016 election. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee for President of the United States, chose Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate. The formal nomination took place at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. The Clinton–Kaine ticket lost the 2016 presidential election to the Republican Trump–Pence ticket, and Kaine returned to the Senate following the campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidential transition of Donald Trump</span> Transfer of presidential power from Barack Obama to Donald Trump

Planning for the presidential transition of Donald Trump, led by then vice president-elect, former governor Mike Pence of Indiana, began before Donald Trump won the United States presidential election on November 8, 2016, and became the president-elect. Trump was formally elected by the Electoral College on December 19, 2016. The transition was formerly led by Chris Christie until he and a number of his supporters were replaced or demoted on November 11. The results were certified by a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2017, and the transition ended when Trump was inaugurated at noon EST on January 20, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Kellogg</span> Retired Lieutenant General in the United States Army (born 1944)

Joseph Keith Kellogg Jr. is a former United States government official and a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army. He previously served as the National Security Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, and as the Executive Secretary and Chief of Staff of the United States National Security Council in the Trump administration. He served as National Security Advisor on an acting basis following the resignation of Michael T. Flynn.

Ricky "Rick" Allen Dearborn is an American government official and lobbyist who served as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Intergovernmental Affairs and Implementation in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump for less than a year from 2017 to 2018. Prior to this role, he was the executive director of Donald Trump's presidential transition team and served in various positions on the U.S. Senate staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Short</span> American politician (born 1970)

Marc Short is an American political advisor who served as chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. Prior to holding this role, Short was the director of legislative affairs at the White House from 2017 to 2018. He became chief of staff for Pence in March 2019. He was a senior fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, a CNN contributor, chief of staff to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and the House Republican Conference. He was president of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce from 2011 to 2016. He was a frequent guest on Meet The Press of NBC News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of American Innovation</span> United States government agency

The Office of American Innovation (OAI) was an office within the White House Office created by the Trump administration on March 27, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Vought</span> American government official (born 1976)

Russell Thurlow Vought is an American former government official who was the director of the Office of Management and Budget from July 2020 to January 2021. He was previously deputy director of the OMB from 2018 to 2020 and acting director from 2019 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great America Committee</span> Political Action Committee of Mike Pence

Great America Committee is a political action committee (PAC) registered by Vice President of the United States Mike Pence on May 17, 2017. It is the first example of an active vice president creating such a type of political action committee while serving in office. Fox News noted Pence's action came only one day after reporting on the Comey memos led to the appointment of a special counsel in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alyssa Farah Griffin</span> American political strategist and television personality (born 1989)

Alyssa Farah Griffin is an American political strategist and television personality. She was the White House Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to the President in 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump. She is a co-host of the daytime talk show The View and also appears on CNN as a political commentator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Williams</span> American diplomat

Jennifer Leigh Williams is an American United States Department of State official who has served as a special advisor to U.S. vice president Mike Pence on European and Russian affairs. Williams testified under subpoena, in the impeachment hearings of Donald Trump, in closed-door hearings before the House intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees on November 9, 2019. She gave public testimony to the House of Representatives ten days later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Miller</span> American media advisor

Katie Rose Miller is an American political advisor who served as the communications director for the Vice President of the United States Mike Pence from 2020 to 2021. She was previously his press secretary from 2019 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Executive Office appointments by Donald Trump</span>

The core White House staff appointments, and most Executive Office of the President officials generally, are not required to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, with a handful of exceptions. There are about 4,000 positions in the Executive Office of the President.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Grogan</span> American government official

Joseph Grogan is the former director of the United States Domestic Policy Council and assistant to President Donald Trump. Appointed by Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Grogan converted the traditionally small office into an influential policy council.

Kristan King Nevins is an American political advisor who served as White House Cabinet Secretary in the Trump Administration.

Olivia Troye is an American national security official who worked on national security and homeland security issues at the National Counterterrorism Center, the United States Department of Energy Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis. She went on to work in the Office of the Vice President of the United States as the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Mike Pence and also served on the White House Coronavirus Task Force as Pence's lead staffer on the Task Force. She resigned from the White House in August 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White House COVID-19 outbreak</span> October 2020 diagnosis of Donald Trump and associates

The White House COVID-19 outbreak was a cluster of SARS-CoV-2 infections that began in September 2020 and ended in January 2021 that spread among people, including many U.S. government officials, who were in close contact during the COVID-19 pandemic in Washington, D.C. Numerous high-profile individuals were infected, including President Donald Trump, who was hospitalized for three days. At least 48 White House staff members or associates, closely working with White House personnel, tested positive for the virus. The White House resisted efforts to engage in contact tracing, leaving it unclear how many people were infected in total and what the origins of the spread were.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastman memos</span> Memos outlining debunked legal theories to overturn the 2020 US presidential election

The Eastman memos, also known as the "coup memo", are documents by John Eastman, an American law professor retained by then-President Donald Trump advancing the fringe legal theory that a U.S. Vice President has unilateral authority to reject certified State electors. This would have the effect of nullifying an election in order to produce an outcome personally desired by the Vice President, such as a result in the Vice President's own party's favor, including retaining himself as Vice President, or if the Vice President is himself the presidential candidate, then to unilaterally make himself president.

References

  1. Nussbaum, Matthew (January 3, 2017). "Pence expected to name Josh Pitcock as chief of staff". Politico . Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  2. "Josh Pitcock '98 is Chief of Staff to VP-Elect Mike Pence". depauw.edu. January 6, 2017. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  3. De La Bastide, Ken (January 6, 2017). "Anderson native Josh Pitcock, right, has been named Vice President-elect Mike Pence's chief of staff". heraldbulletin.com. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  4. Weller, Mark (January 10, 2017). "The man behind the man behind the man: Pence chief Josh Pitcock". policysoapbox.com. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  5. Groppe, Maureen (January 25, 2017). "Pence tapping former aides, and some lobbyists, for VP office staff". Indianapolis Star . Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  6. Haberman, Maggie (June 29, 2017). "Pence to Replace His Chief of Staff". New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  7. Groppe, Maureen (June 29, 2017). "Mike Pence's first major staff shakeup: Josh Pitcock out, Nick Ayers in as chief of staff". USA Today. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  8. Cook, Nancy; Palmer, Anna (October 10, 2017). "Former Pence aide Pitcock joining Oracle". Politico. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  9. DePauw University Publications. "Depauw Magazine Spring 2008" . Retrieved November 15, 2011.
  10. United States Office of Government Ethics. "Seaman Certificate of Divestiture" (PDF). Retrieved April 25, 2019.
Political offices
Preceded by Chief of Staff to the Vice President
2017
Succeeded by