The man Democrats once denounced as a threat to American democracy has become one of their most important allies in government. EricCortellessa profiles Postmaster General Louis DeJoy
ouis DeJoy thought his workday was done as he arrived home one evening in February 2022. The Postmaster General was locked in a grueling, monthslong battle with Congress over a bill to shake up the Postal Service. But as he settled in, his cell phone rang and, pulling it out, he saw who was calling and could already guess why. It was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The second most powerful Democrat in America wanted to know how the whip count was coming.
The plan grows the agency, building new processing centers and centralizing the delivery network. It converts more than 100,000 part-time employees to full-time. And it adds new services, such as partnerships with local retailers to help them compete with Amazon. These potentially dramatic changes are a chief reason why the postal unions have embraced the self-made man who shares some of their blue-collar roots.
DeJoy grew up in working-class Brooklyn, the son of second-generation Italian immigrants and the oldest of five children. When he was 11, they moved to Long Island. DeJoy’s father was frequently absent, he says, because he was on the road as a self-employed truck driver. By high school, DeJoy craved a different lifestyle. “I was interested in money,” he says, with a smirk on his face. He was also desperate to escape.
on the board of another logistics firm and ran a real estate investment shop. He was also planning to serve as an official host of the 2020 Republican National Convention, originally slated to be held in Charlotte, N.C. But then, in January 2020, he got a call from a USPS recruiter. They wanted to talk to him about becoming Postmaster General.
The Sorting and Delivery Center in Athens, Ga., which the Postal Service is renovating with new equipment and EV charging stations with the goal of making regional delivery more efficientThe snafu led to major slowdowns in mail service—which was compounded by the fact that roughly 30% of the USPS workforce was out with the virus—leading to a national panic. Americans were relying more on the Post Office amid the pandemic, and within months millions of voters were expected to vote by mail.
Then-Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the chair of the House Oversight Committee at the time, brokered a compromise with Rep. James Comer, the Kentucky Republican, union leaders, and DeJoy. The main priority, they all agreed, was repealing a George W. Bush-era mandate that required the Postal Service to pre-pay health plans for retirees, an onerous requirement imposed on no other federal agency. It was bleeding the USPS dry.
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