Rahm Emanuel considers presidential run: report

A Wednesday column from Politico stated that Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and Obama White House Chief of Staff, is "gearing up for a presidential run," appearing on numerous political podcasts and hitting the lecture circuit.

"I’ve only been back two months, I have no idea what I’m doing," Emanuel told Senior Political Columnist Jonathan Martin. "I’m not done with public service and I’m hoping public service is not done with me." Emanuel, who has not explicitly stated his intentions to run, most recently served as US ambassador to Japan under the Biden administration.

Emanuel has appeared on numerous political podcasts and got a contract with CNN and a regular Washington Post column after returning from a stint in Japan. He has also made numerous stops on a lecture circuit, and will make his first stop on a service academy tour later in March, speaking at West Point.

"The biggest Rahm-may-run tell, though, is that he’s already road-testing the first outlines of a stump speech, or at least an issue he can make his own," Martin wrote.

At a Democracy Forward conference in February, Emanuel said, "I am done with the discussion of locker rooms, I am done with the discussion of bathrooms and we better start having a conversation about the classroom," referencing a study that showed two-thirds of eighth graders aren’t reading at grade level. He later stated about the data, "We can lead a discussion and force a topic onto the agenda of this country that’s worthy of having a debate about."

Not long after this appearance, Emanuel appeared on Bill Maher’s show, saying, "In seventh grade, if I had known I could’ve said the word ‘they’ and gotten in the girls’ bathroom, I would’ve done it." He added, "We literally are a superpower, we’re facing off against China with 1.4 billion people and two-thirds of our children can’t read eighth grade level."

Martin wrote that Emanuel, in the wake of the Democrats’ loss in the 2024 election, "wanted to dig into it all: DNC chair immediately, Illinois governor in 2026, the state’s maybe-soon-to-be-open Senate seat held by Richard J. Durbin, the same year, Chicago mayor in 2027 and yes the presidency in 2028."

"However, the party chair contest became a student government race among committee members, Gov. JB Pritzker is widely seen as seeking a third term, Emanuel surely doesn’t want to risk ending his career losing a primary for a Senate seat he doesn’t crave and he’s already been mayor," Martin added.

David Axelrod, a longtime friend of Rahm, told Martin, "If you run for any other office, you win or lose. But if you run a smart, spirited race for president you can elevate yourself. So why not jump in the pool?" A loss in the presidential race could see him in a "closing act" role for his career at a place such as the State Department or the Pentagon, Martin wrote.