As President-elect Joe Biden’s administration begins to roll out its earliest hires and seek candidates for powerful jobs across the government, the Democratic Party’s left-wing activists and its K Street insiders are waging a battle over who should be eligible.

Progressive groups want the incoming administration to reject applicants they view as too cozy with corporate America, but Black and Latino lobbyists are mounting a counteroffensive, arguing that such prohibitions could limit diversity in the executive branch.

The transition team has indicated that incoming officials will sign an ethics pledge, but the details regarding previous employment remain unclear.

“To make a blanket statement that we won’t take anybody from a corporation, you start to limit who your candidates can be,” said Cristina Antelo, founder of the lobbying firm Ferox Strategies.

Minority lobbyists may not have benefited from family wealth, she said, and therefore may have made career decisions that wouldn’t meet a “purity” test of only working in the public or nonprofit sectors.

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Morgan Harper, a senior adviser with the American Economic Liberties Project, another group urging the Biden administration to reject would-be officials with corporate or K Street pasts, agrees. The effort by minority lobbyists amounts to “trying to promote corporate interests and maintain a status quo,” said Harper, who is Black.