CHICAGO—Rahm Emanuel, never humble about his political skills, is trying to accomplish something that seems far-fetched even for him: push his Democratic Party—rooted in the identity politics of the left—to the center.
The former congressman, White House chief of staff, Chicago mayor and diplomat is direct about what he thinks Democrats need to do to win
national elections again. He calls the party’s brand “toxic” and “weak and woke,” a nod to
culture-war issues he thinks Democrats have become too often fixated on that President Trump has successfully used against them.
While Emanuel is coy about what he wants next for his political career, he appears to be laying the groundwork for a presidential bid. He will be the headliner at a September fish fry for Democrats in Iowa, where the party’s nomination process traditionally started until 2024.
The Democratic presidential field is likely to be crowded. “Voters will be lucky,” Emanuel said. “They’ll have a real debate, one we didn’t have in 2024.”
He might also run for governor of Illinois if his friend who currently occupies that office, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, decides not to seek a third term in 2026. Pritzker, a billionaire with a history of self-financing his races, is also contemplating
a White House bid.
“I’m not sure what he’s running for, but he’s running for something,” said former Chicago congressman Luis Gutiérrez, who served with Emanuel in the House. “He has some of the best political instincts of anyone in the Democratic Party.”
In his usual frenetic way, Emanuel is positioning himself as a savior for the party even as he has flashbacks of the movie “Thelma & Louise” and its suicidal conclusion.
“I’m tired of sitting in the back seat when somebody’s gunning it at 90 miles an hour for a cliff,” the 65-year-old said over lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Chicago River.
At times, Emanuel sounds like he had already made up his mind to pursue the presidency, sometimes slipping into the past tense of a declared candidate and seemingly testing future stump speech material.
“If you want the country to give you the keys to the car, somebody’s got to be articulating an agenda that’s fighting for America, not just fighting Trump,” he said. “The American dream has become unaffordable. It’s inaccessible. And that has to be unacceptable to us.”
For a dose of populism popular in the party, he added: “The public’s not wrong. They figured it out. The system’s rigged. It’s corrupt.”
Political Animal
Emanuel is wiry and exercise-obsessed, swimming 3 to 4 miles a week, plus weights, machine workouts and yoga.
His fitness fixation grew after it helped save his life during an extended hospitalization following severe infections triggered by losing part of his middle finger in a meat slicer while working at Arby’s in high school. He has been known to flip that partial finger at people to express displeasure, although former President Barack Obama has joked the injury left Emanuel, known for his swearing, “practically mute.”
Since returning to the U.S. after serving as former President Joe Biden’s ambassador to Japan, Emanuel has been hard to miss. He secured contracts with CNN and the Washington Post to provide commentary and has been on the speaking circuit.
Emanuel is direct when asked about the prospect of running against Pritzker for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.
“Of course it would be awkward,” he said. “We’re friends. He has something he wants to offer. I have something I want to offer.”
There are a
few other potential 2028 Democratic candidates also
suggesting party moderation. They include Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, as well as
former transportation secretary and 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
When it comes to qualifications, Emanuel points to his experience running the nation’s third-largest city, among other things. That could cut both ways with primary voters.
Black voters, a critical Democratic constituency, became more skeptical of him following the murder of Laquan McDonald, a Black 17-year-old, by
a Chicago police officer in 2014. His administration was criticized for refusing to release video from the incident before a court order.
“There’s not a day or a week that goes by that I don’t think about it, what I could have done differently,” Emanuel said.
He cited his efforts to reduce “food deserts” in neighborhoods without grocery stores, raising Black teen graduation rates and support he has gotten from Black leaders, even after McDonald’s death. “My entire record in the Black community doesn’t come down to one thing,” he said.
Chicago Alderman Walter Burnett Jr., the vice mayor, said Emanuel and the city learned from the experience.
“I call Rahm my Hebrew Homey,” said Burnett, who is Black. “He did a lot in our neighborhoods. The Laquan McDonald thing hurt him, but I think we are a better city because of it, because of what was put in place with the police after it happened.”
On education, Emanuel said the Democratic Party has to push for higher standards because giving young people what they need to succeed is at the heart of boosting the middle class.
“I’m empathetic and sympathetic to a child trying to figure out their pronoun, but it doesn’t trump the fact that the rest of the class doesn’t know what a pronoun is,” he said.
Rahm-Bo
As he contemplates his political future, Emanuel has returned to an industry where he has made millions. He is a senior adviser at Centerview Partners, the same investment bank where he
spent two years after leaving the mayor’s office in 2019, earning more than $12 million.
An earlier investment-bank windfall of at least $16 million at Wasserstein Perella & Co. came after Emanuel served as Bill Clinton’s White House political director and later as a senior adviser. In 2002, he used some of his fortune to help win a congressional seat vacated by Rod Blagojevich when he became Illinois governor.
Emanuel, a one-time ballet dancer who at 5-feet, 8-inches tall earned the nickname “Rahm-bo” for his take-no-prisoners style, defended his banking work when asked how it would play in a Democratic primary.
“I didn’t become a lobbyist. I didn’t write a book, a kiss-and-tell book, and crap on other people,” he said. “I took care of my family. I’m not ashamed of that.”
The Democratic Party has changed dramatically since Emanuel worked for Clinton, a centrist by today’s standards. It has even changed since Emanuel helped get Obama elected before serving as his first White House chief of staff, an assignment that forced him to abandon his goal of becoming the first Jewish Speaker of the House.
One of many hurdles Emanuel faces is that the party’s energy is concentrated
around its progressive base and people such Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.). Views of Emanuel among Democrats also offer a portal into the party’s split: Some progressives despise him, while some moderates love him.
Former Rep. Steve Israel (D., N.Y.) said he thinks Emanuel can nudge the party toward the center because he did it when he led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, a year when the party gained 30 seats and won the House majority for the first time in 12 years.
Israel said Emanuel has an ability to “mindmeld” with the voters that determine close elections. “He can be rough-talking and he can be blunt and he’s high-intensity, but he taps into the anxieties of swing voters,” he said.
Emanuel was a featured speaker earlier this month at a retreat in Maryland of the moderate New Democrat Coalition, a congressional caucus. Coalition member Rep. Greg Landsman (D., Ohio) said he expects Emanuel will be a “huge voice” in shaping the party’s direction, including potentially through a presidential bid.
“He’s closer to where voters are than anyone else,” he said. “That’s his lane.”
