White House Favors Former Deputy Surgeon General Erica Schwartz to Lead CDC After Two Failed Nominations

The White House is reportedly moving forward with Dr. Erica Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general, as its preferred candidate to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — making her the third nominee President Donald Trump has put forward for the critical public health post. The administration is also said to be evaluating at least three additional individuals for senior leadership roles who would support Schwartz if she is confirmed.

The selection of Dr. Schwartz follows a turbulent nomination process that has left the nation’s premier public health agency without permanent leadership for months. Trump’s first pick for CDC director, Dave Weldon, a former Republican congressman from Florida and a physician, withdrew his nomination in February 2025 after it became clear he lacked sufficient Senate support. Weldon had drawn scrutiny for his history of questioning vaccine safety, which raised concerns among public health experts and some Republican senators about his ability to lead an agency fundamentally tasked with disease prevention through immunization programs. Trump’s second nominee, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News medical contributor and urgent care physician, also saw her nomination stall. Nesheiwat drew criticism from elements of the administration’s own base — particularly allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who serves as Secretary of Health and Human Services — because she was perceived as insufficiently aligned with the administration’s skeptical posture toward certain vaccine mandates and public health orthodoxies.

Dr. Schwartz’s background positions her as a potentially more consensus-friendly choice, though her path to confirmation remains uncertain. She served as deputy surgeon general and has experience navigating federal public health bureaucracy, which could ease concerns about managerial competence at an agency with approximately 11,000 employees and an annual budget that has historically exceeded $11 billion. However, the CDC has already undergone dramatic changes under the current administration. HHS Secretary Kennedy has overseen a sweeping reorganization that has included significant staff reductions across the department, with the CDC reportedly losing hundreds of employees through layoffs and early retirement offers. The agency’s role in vaccine safety monitoring, infectious disease surveillance, and public health data collection has been a focal point of debate, with the administration pushing to refocus the CDC’s mission and reduce what it characterizes as bureaucratic overreach.

The decision to simultaneously identify three other individuals for senior supporting roles is notable and suggests the administration may be attempting to build a leadership team that satisfies multiple factions within the Republican coalition. Throughout the nomination process, a central tension has emerged between those who want a credentialed public health professional leading the CDC and those aligned with Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which has pushed for a fundamental reorientation of federal health policy away from what it views as an overreliance on pharmaceutical interventions. The dual-track approach of naming both a director and a supporting cast could represent an effort to balance these competing demands — placing a mainstream medical professional at the helm while ensuring ideologically aligned deputies shape the agency’s direction.

The stakes surrounding this nomination extend well beyond internal Washington politics. The CDC plays a critical role in responding to emerging infectious disease threats, monitoring flu seasons, tracking antimicrobial resistance, and managing chronic disease prevention programs that affect millions of Americans. With the agency already operating under interim leadership and facing reduced staffing, public health experts across the political spectrum have stressed the urgency of installing a confirmed director who can provide stability and strategic direction. Schwartz’s nomination, once formally announced, would go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, currently chaired by Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is himself a physician. Whether Schwartz can secure the bipartisan support that eluded her predecessors will likely depend on her confirmation hearing performance and the degree to which she aligns — or distances herself — from the administration’s more controversial health policy positions.