Key Democrat Reportedly Goes to Bat for Louis DeJoy, One of the Last Trump Holdovers: The ‘Proper Man’ to Be Postmaster General

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy may be a controversial figure in Washington D.C. as one of the last holdouts from the Trump administration, though the Democratic chairman of Postal Service’s board of governors is making the case that DeJoy should remain in his role.

As an ally and donor to former President Donald Trump, DeJoy became a magnet of controversy during the last months of the 2020 election, and it continued to follow him even afterwards.

With his cost-cutting measures for the postal service and the ensuing slowdown for mail delivery, critics frequently tied DeJoy to Trump’s attempts to undermine mail-in voting, which, in turn, led to Trump’s repeated attempts to delegitimize his election loss. DeJoy was also criticized for how package delivery was slowed down when people were especially reliant on the Postal Service amid the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Atlantic’s Russell Berman published a profile on DeJoy that examined his efforts to reorganize the Postal Service in order to address the financial losses it has seen in recent years. Berman spoke to the Postal Service’s Democratic chair — Ron Bloom — for the article, and he offered a positive view of DeJoy’s strategy to make the mail service more reliable.

“Right now, I think he’s the proper man for the job,” Bloom said. “He’s earned my support, and he will have it until he doesn’t. And I have no particular reason to believe he will lose it.”

Bloom was not the only Democrat who has spoken positively about DeJoy’s efforts.

Congresswoman Haley Stevens (D-MI) said DeJoy has “a good plan on merit” with regards to his attempts to modernize post offices and delivery trucks. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) also commended Bloom for defending DeJoy from critics, saying “He’s not interested in personalities. He’s interested in results.”

The article also notes, however, that Bloom has come under fire from Democrats who’ve pushed for him and DeJoy to be removed from their respective positions. Bloom shrugged off concerns about this, though he bashed members of his own party for accusing DeJoy of scheming to destroy the Post Office and help Trump swing the election.

“Skepticism is proper, but people said we stole these collection boxes from poor neighborhoods,” Bloom said. “It’s absolute BS.”