California native leaves White House for State Department in staff reshuffling

Vedant Patel, an assistant White House press secretary, will leave his post next month to serve as a spokesman at the State Department.

The San Jose native and UC Riverside graduate has served as a White House press aide since President Biden took office in January 2021. Before joining the White House, he worked on Biden’s presidential campaign and in the offices of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and former Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose).

The move is the latest in a West Wing staff reshuffling that included Karine Jean-Pierre replacing Jen Psaki as Biden’s top spokeswoman this month.

Jean-Pierre described Patel as “an integral member of this team and we’ll miss him dearly.”

Psaki, who served as State Department spokeswoman during the Obama administration, said Patel possessed “that rare combination of intuition, intellectual curiosity and top-notch writing and communicating skills.”

Patel, 31, focused on issues including immigration, climate change and education, and worked with the National Security Council on security-related issues. He will serve as a principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department.

Abdullah Hasan, deputy communications director for the Office of Management and Budget, will take over for Patel at the White House.