H.D. Palmer

Deputy Director for External Affairs, Department of Finance

H.D. Palmer, Deputy Director for External Affairs, serves as a principal spokesman on fiscal and financial issues for the Newsom Administration. Palmer also served in the same position from 2011 to 2019 for Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., and from 2003 to 2011 for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Palmer also served as Assistant Director of Finance for Governor Pete Wilson from 1993 to 1999.

Prior to his service in Sacramento, Palmer worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. for 12 years as a spokesman for three United States Senators — S.I. Hayakawa of California, Jim McClure of Idaho, and John Seymour of California. A native of Glendale, Palmer is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s College of Journalism.