Sean J. Cooksey elected Chairman, Ellen L. Weintraub elected Vice Chair for 2024

WASHINGTON—At its open meeting today, the Federal Election Commission elected Sean J. Cooksey as Chairman and Ellen L. Weintraub as Vice Chair for 2024.

Commissioner Cooksey was nominated by President Donald J. Trump on October 30, 2020, and confirmed by the United States Senate on December 9, 2020. Prior to his appointment, Commissioner Cooksey served as General Counsel to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, working on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and advising the Senator on issues including constitutional law, judicial nominations, election law, federal criminal law, immigration law, antitrust policy, intellectual property, and ethics compliance. He previously served as Deputy Chief Counsel for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.

Prior to his Senate service, Commissioner Cooksey worked as an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Washington, D.C., where his practice focused on appeals and constitutional law. He also served as a law clerk for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas.

Commissioner Cooksey received his B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, from Truman State University. He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with High Honors and Order of the Coif, and served as a Managing Editor on the University of Chicago Law Review.

Commissioner Weintraub has served on the U.S. Federal Election Commission since 2002 and chaired it for the third time in 2019. During her tenure, she has served as a consistent voice for campaign-finance law enforcement and robust disclosure.

Commissioner Weintraub has published articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and leading law reviews and is a frequent speaker on news shows and at conferences at home and abroad. She is a native New Yorker, holding degrees from Yale College and Harvard Law School. Prior to her appointment to the Commission, Commissioner Weintraub was Of Counsel to the Political Law Group of Perkins Coie LLP and Counsel to the Ethics Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.