As with the previous two season kick-offs of Early Returns, we welcome the third season with the newly elected 2024 chair of the Federal Election Commission, Sean Cooksey, who is a republican. The FEC consists of six bipartisan commissioners with no more than three from the same political party. It takes the vote of four commissioners to take any major action.
Chair Cooksey has three of his six years under his belt serving on the FEC. He and Jan discuss what the FEC is doing in preparing for the 2024 election and his agenda as chair, including artificial intelligence and candidate security considerations.
About Sean Cooksey
Sean Cooksey was nominated to the Federal Election Commission 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, and as an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Washington, D.C. 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.