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- Emily Murphy delayed the 2020 presidential transition, affecting Pres. Joe Biden's administration setup.
- Congress passed reforms to prevent similar issues in future elections, changing transition protocols.
- In 2024, both Harris and Trump faced challenges with transition preparations and agreements.
SALT LAKE CITY — For nearly three weeks in 2020, Emily Murphy was the most powerful person in America. Most Americans had never heard of the soft-spoken administrator of the General Services Administration, responsible for logistical matters like federal building contracts and the fleet of government vehicles. The country, eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic, had just survived a contentious presidential election — one that then-President Donald Trump said was to save the "American dream," and his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, said was over its "soul." In the days after Election Day, a steady tick-tick of news networks called the race for Biden; by Nov. 7, Biden declared victory.
Murphy, however, was unconvinced. In most election cycles, the administrator of the GSA plays only a perfunctory role. As soon as a winner is declared, incoming administrations have access, by law, to the GSA's suite of resources, from office space to computer systems to government salaries for incoming staff. As soon as the GSA administrator declares a winner — an "ascertainment" — that process shifts into gear, beginning the peaceful transfer of power.
But Murphy, nearly three weeks after Election Day in 2020, had yet to acknowledge Biden the winner, essentially holding the federal government's transition efforts at a standstill. (Murphy did not respond to an interview request for this story.) Trump had not conceded his loss, and he was pressuring his allies within and without the federal government to hold onto power. Murphy, who was appointed to her position by Trump, said her decision to delay ascertainment was not made out of "favoritism," but of extreme caution: the country had never seen a situation like the one she was in. But privately, she told friends that unless Trump conceded, she'd be "hard-pressed" to make a decision, The Washington Post reported.
Legal disputes and recounts were still underway, and Murphy claimed she did not intend to get ahead of the process. "I do not think that an agency charged with improving federal procurement and property management should place itself above the constitutionally-based election process," she later wrote.
Others were not convinced. The nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition's board of directors wrote an open letter, saying, "While there will be legal disputes requiring adjudication, the outcome is sufficiently clear that the transition process must now begin." Biden's spokesperson called on Murphy to "quickly" make a decision. Murphy said she received an onslaught of violent threats toward herself, her family and her pets; in the first 48 hours after Biden was named victor, she said she received "about 2 million emails."
But her decision had consequences for the incoming administration, too. Until she called it, the $6.3 million in federal funds budgeted to the transition effort would not become available. Biden's team was barred from receiving intelligence briefings. Security clearances for thousands of political appointees were stalled. The short runway between the election and the inauguration to set up the largest enterprise in the world was shortened further. During her nomination hearings in 2017, Murphy had called herself "a bit of a wonk" who was "not here to garner headlines or make a name for myself"; suddenly, Murphy found herself at the center of America's most consequential political conflict in decades.
Eventually, Murphy relented. On Nov. 23, less than two months before Inauguration Day, Murphy sent an ascertainment letter to Biden. The peaceful transfer of power could begin.
The right answer
With less than two weeks until Election Day, the country will soon learn whether we learned our lesson. In 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, a product of months of debate over how to avoid a repeat of 2020. It raised the threshold for members of Congress to object to electoral votes, a provision supporters hope will prevent conflict on Jan. 6. But it also changed how, and when, the formal transition of power can begin.
The GSA administrator is no longer responsible for making an ascertainment decision. Instead, if the winner is unknown five days after the election, the GSA is authorized to treat both major-party candidates as the president-elect, and unroll resources to both. In a tightly contested election, transition teams for both Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump could receive briefings, clearances and funds post-election.
"It solved a problem, and we will see in this cycle whether those requirements on federal agencies were exactly the right answer," said Valerie Smith Boyd, the director of the Center for Presidential Transition.
During the unpredictable 2024 election cycle, nothing has gone as planned. Both campaigns got a late start: Harris faced political challenges by entering the race in mid-summer, but the consequences were even more dire for her transition team, which worked with a shortened runway. And Trump did not formalize his transition team, at least publicly, until August, far later than previous campaigns. "Typically, GSA gets to kind of pre-negotiate or pre-discuss with representatives of the candidates' teams, and neither team had those representatives this year," Boyd said.
By the Sept. 1 deadline to enter memorandums of understanding with the GSA — laying out what services will be provided — neither campaign was ready to sign. Harris had been the formal Democratic nominee for only four days; her team eventually signed on Sept. 19. The Trump team has yet to reach an agreement.
