Labor Secretary Lori Chavez Delemer leaves Trump Cabinet amid investigation
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez Delemer resigned from the Trump administration following reports of a leadership investigation.
WASHINGTON – The White House announced April 20 that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez Delemer will be leaving the Trump administration.
She is the third cabinet minister to resign this year. All are women. Her resignation comes amid allegations of misconduct and after multiple news outlets reported that an investigation into her leadership was well underway.
White House communications director Stephen Chan told the X-Post that Chavez Delemer will be leaving the administration for a job in the private sector. I didn’t say where.
“She has done a phenomenal job in her role protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans acquire additional skills to improve their lives,” Chan wrote.
He said Keith Sonderling, Labor’s deputy chief secretary, would become acting head of the department. The announcement came days after the New York Times reported that the Labor Department’s investigation into Ms. Delimer’s leadership included text messages allegedly sent by Ms. Delimer’s husband and father to young female staffers.
Her resignation also comes just weeks after President Trump ousted two other Cabinet members. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi also resigned in early April for an unspecified position in the private sector, and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also moved to special envoy in March.
Chavez Delemer is a former Republican congressman from Oregon who was responsible for overseeing federal laws and regulations related to unions, occupational safety, minimum wage and other workplace conditions, and other labor-related issues.
The New York Post reported in January that she was under investigation on charges including inappropriate relationships with subordinates, unnecessary travel using taxpayer money and drinking alcohol on the job. The Department of Labor denied these allegations, and the White House claimed at the time that they were unfounded.
In April, the New York Times reported that Delemer had three civil rights lawsuits filed against her by three women who worked in her office. The allegations include Chavez Delemer having his staff perform errands such as picking up dry cleaning and cleaning apartment closets.
According to the newspaper, three of Delemer’s staff and a security guard who was said to have had an affair with her were forced out of their jobs over the allegations.
Her husband, Sean, was also accused of sexual harassment. He reportedly made unwanted sexual advances toward employees and was reportedly barred from the Ministry of Labor’s headquarters.
The Washington, D.C., police department declined to charge him with a crime in February.
Who is Lori Chavez Delemer?
The Senate confirmed Chavez Delemer as the 30th Secretary of Labor on March 10, 2025.
“The daughter of a Teamster, Secretary Chavez Delemer is a successful small businessman and the first in her family to graduate from college,” her bio on the Department of Labor’s website says.
The 57-year-old is married to Dr. Sean Delemer, who founded an anesthesia management company and clinic in the Pacific Northwest, the biography continues. The couple have twin daughters.
From 2010 to 2018, she served as the first female and Latinx mayor of Happy Valley, a city southeast of Portland.
In 2022, Chavez Delemer was elected to the House of Representatives representing Oregon’s 5th Congressional District. She served in the House of Representatives from 2023 to 2025. She ran for reelection in the 2024 election, but lost to Democrat Janelle Bynum.
While in Congress, Chavez Delemer was one of three House co-sponsors of a pro-union bill called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which aimed to expand labor protections for people who organize and bargain in the workplace.
Her interim replacement, Sonderling, also heads the Institute for Museum and Library Services, an agency that funds libraries and museums around the country that have been closed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Natalie Neisa Alland is a senior reporter at USA TODAY. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at X @nataliealund.
Contributor: Bill Poehler, Salem Statesman Journal
