Speak Softly And Carry a Big Bag of Cash

○ From chips to TikTok, Gina Raimondo is writing her own China doctrine

- Cristina Lindblad

Gina Raimondo is the first to admit that she often can’t see the line between work and play—or even work and pray.

It happened when a friend threw her a welcome-to-DC party in the summer of 2021 to celebrate her appointment as secretary of commerce. Instead of mingling with guests, Raimondo set up a war room at her host’s home where she and a group of aides holed up for hours negotiating the broadband portion of the infrastructure bill with lawmakers. She calls it “a classic Gina moment” that left her only “mildly embarrassed.” Then there was the time she tried to corner then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at church one Sunday in late 2021, when Congress was debating what became of the US Chips and Science Act. Raimondo says her husband dissuaded her, telling her it was neither the right place nor the right time. She shrugs it off: “It’s fair game. It’s a public place. It’s Nancy Pelosi— she works all the time.”

The usually sleepy US Department of Commerce is not a sought-after perch for those looking to make their mark in Washington. Raimondo’s predecessor, Wilbur Ross, had trouble staying awake on the job.

But the 51-year-old former Rhode Island governor is injecting new energy into the role, which under President Joe Biden has become more high profile— and more politically perilous.