Can a sitting member of a President's Cabinet run for office without resigning?

[brucejoel99]

Depends. If it's a partisan election, then no, they wouldn't have a choice but to resign once they start running as federal employees (other than an incumbent President or Vice President) are prohibited by the Hatch Act from running as candidates in partisan elections. However, if it's a nonpartisan election (that is, an election - say, for local government - where nobody can be nominated &/or elected while representing a political party), then yes, they could run without resigning.

[brucejoel99]

Depends. If it's a partisan election, then no, they wouldn't have a choice but to resign once they start running as federal employees (other than an incumbent President or Vice President) are prohibited by the Hatch Act from running as candidates in partisan elections. However, if it's a nonpartisan election (that is, an election - say, for local government - where nobody can be nominated &/or elected while representing a political party), then yes, they could run without resigning.

I was hoping that Hilda Solis would be a good example, but she left the Labor Department over a year before being elected to the LA County Board of Supervisors.

To be fair, she may very well have done so as a precaution, if nothing else. Just because local election laws may designate an election as "nonpartisan" & have the candidates' names listed on the ballot without party designation doesn't necessarily make it a "nonpartisan" election for the purposes of the Hatch Act, as such candidates could still "represent" political parties &/or could seek &/or accept party endorsements &/or resources (as is very much the case with elections for the LA County Board of Supervisors), thereby making even a legally "nonpartisan" election a "partisan" election under the terms of the Hatch Act.

[brucejoel99]

It seems like Herbert Hoover technically did it.  Based on Wikipedia, it seems like he was nominated in July (and campaigned in primaries before that) but didn't resign until August.

Tbf, the Hatch Act wasn't passed until 1939.

[brucejoel99]

Did RFK resign as Attorney-General before he ran for the Senate?

Yes.