David Axelrod | |
|---|---|
 Axelrod in 2015 | |
| Senior Advisor to the President | |
| In office January 20, 2009 – January 10, 2011 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Barry Jackson |
| Succeeded by | David Plouffe |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1955-02-22)February 22, 1955 (age 70) New York City, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent |
|
| Education | University of Chicago (BA) |
David M. Axelrod (born February 22, 1955) is an American political consultant andanalyst. A member of theDemocratic Party, he is best known for being the chief strategist toBarack Obama during his2008 and2012 presidential campaigns. In addition, during Obama'sfirst term, Axelrod worked in theWhite House as thesenior advisor to the president.
Born and raised inNew York City, Axelrod started his career as a political reporter for theChicago Tribune. He subsequently helped leadPaul Simon's successful1984 bid for the U.S. Senate inIllinois. Forming a political consultancy firm, Axelrod built a reputation as a sought-after Democratic strategist, especially in Illinois. His clients includedChicago MayorsHarold Washington andRichard M. Daley, to whom he served as a longtime advisor. Axelrod also grew his national profile advising figures likeJohn Edwards during his2004 presidential campaign andRahm Emanuel for the2006 midterms.
During the2008 presidential election, Axelrod worked as the chief strategist to Barack Obama, whom he had first met in the early 1990s. After Obama's election, Axelrod was appointed as Senior Advisor to the President.[1] He left the position in early 2011 to become the Senior Strategist for Obama's successfulre-election campaign in 2012. Following the campaign, Axelrod retired from consulting and served as the director of theUniversity of Chicago Institute of Politics from 2012 until 2023. He has also been a Senior Political Commentator onCNN since 2015.[2][3]
Axelrod was born on theLower East Side ofManhattan, New York City, and grew up in itsStuyvesant Town area.[4][5][6] He was raised in aliberalJewish family[7][8] and had hisbar mitzvah ceremony at the Brotherhood Synagogue in Manhattan.[9] His mother,Myril Bennett (née Davidson), was a journalist atPM, a liberal-leaning 1940s newspaper, and later an advertising executive atYoung & Rubicam.[10] His father, Joseph Axelrod, was apsychologist and avid baseball fan, who emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States at the age of eleven.[11][12][13][14][15] He attended Public School 40 in Manhattan. Axelrod's parents separated when he was eight years old. In 2021, Axelrod disclosed in aCNN op-ed that his father suffered from severe clinical depression, unbeknownst at the time to the family, which led to his suicide when the younger Axelrod was 19.[16]
Describing the appeal of politics, he told theLos Angeles Times, "I got into politics because I believe in idealism. Just to be a part of this effort that seems to be rekindling the kind of idealism that I knew when I was a kid, it's a great thing to do. So I find myself getting very emotional about it."[17] At thirteen years old, he was selling campaign buttons forRobert F. Kennedy. After graduating from New York'sStuyvesant High School[12] in 1972, Axelrod attended theUniversity of Chicago, where he majored in political science.[18] Axelrod described his childhood as "very turbulent", although he did not specify the exact details that elicited this characterization.[16]
As anundergraduate, Axelrod wrote for theHyde Park Herald, covering politics, and earned an internship at theChicago Tribune.
Axelrod lost his father to suicide in 1977, around the time of his college graduation.[19]
While at the University of Chicago he met his future wife, business student Susan Landau (daughter of physician-scientistRichard L. Landau),[20] and they married in 1979.
In June 1981, they had their first child, a daughter.[21] She was diagnosed withepilepsy at seven months of age.[22] Axelrod describes Lauren as having had brutal seizures, requiring a constantly changing regimen of medications for some time. This left her developmentally disabled, but nevertheless mainstreamed in school.[21] For a few years after high school, the family struggled to find programs that would keep her happy and fulfilled, but were able to place her inMisericordia, a large dormitory-style group home in 2002, where she leads an active life.[21] As of 2021[update], Axelrod advocates for a flexible, mixed approach to group homes that support environments for people like his daughter, in contrast to the common approach of exclusively moving toward smaller group homes.[21]
The Axelrods have two other children.
TheChicago Tribune hired Axelrod after his graduation from college. He worked there for eight years, covering national, state and local politics, becoming their youngest political writer in 1981. At 27, he became the city hall bureau chief and a political columnist for the paper.[23] He left theTribune and joined the campaign of U.S. senatorPaul Simon as communications director in 1984. Within weeks he was promoted to co-campaign manager.[24]
In 1985, Axelrod formed the political consultancy firm, Axelrod & Associates. During the1986 Illinois gubernatorial election, he was hired by the campaign of then-attorney generalNeil Hartigan, but switched to work for former senatorAdlai Stevenson III when he entered the Democratic primary.[25] In 1987 he worked on the successful reelection campaign ofHarold Washington, Chicago's first blackmayor, while spearheading Simon's campaign for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. This established his experience in working with black politicians; he later became a key player in similar mayoral campaigns of black candidates, includingDennis Archer in Detroit,Michael R. White inCleveland,Anthony A. Williams in Washington, D.C.,Lee P. Brown in Houston, andJohn F. Street in Philadelphia.[19] Axelrod is a longtime strategist for the formerChicago mayorRichard M. Daley[26] and styles himself a "specialist in urban politics."The Economist notes he also specializes in "packaging black candidates for white voters".[26]
In January 1990, Axelrod was hired to be the media consultant for the all but official re-election campaign ofOregon governorNeil Goldschmidt.[27] However, in February Goldschmidt decided not to seek re-election.[28] Axelrod was retained by theLiberal Party of Ontario to helpDalton McGuinty and his party in 2002 to be elected into government in the October 2003 election. Axelrod's effect onOntario was heard through the winning Liberal appeal to "working families" and placing an emphasis on positive policy contrasts like canceling corporate tax breaks to fund education and health.[29]
In 2004, Axelrod worked forJohn Edwards'presidential campaign. He lost responsibility for making ads, but continued as the campaign's spokesman. Regarding Edwards' failed 2004 presidential campaign, Axelrod has commented, "I have a whole lot of respect for John, but at some point the candidate has to close the deal and—I can't tell you why—that never happened with John."[30][31]
Axelrod worked as a consultant forExelon, an Illinois-area utility which operated the largest fleet of nuclear reactors in the United States.[32][33]
Axelrod contributed anop-ed to theChicago Tribune in defense ofpatronage after two top officials in the administration of longtime client Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley were arrested for what federal prosecutors described as "pervasive fraud" in City Hall hiring and promotions.[34][35] In 2006, he consulted for several campaigns, including the successful campaigns ofEliot Spitzer inNew York's gubernatorial election andDeval Patrick inMassachusetts's gubernatorial election. Also in 2006, Axelrod served as the chief political adviser forDemocratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairU.S. RepresentativeRahm Emanuel for theU.S. House of Representatives elections, in which the Democrats gained 31 seats.
He was an adjunct professor ofcommunication studies atNorthwestern University, where, along with Professor Peter Miller, he taught an undergraduate class titled Campaign Strategy, analyzing political campaigns, and their strategies.[36] On June 14, 2009, he received an honoraryDoctor of Humane Letters degree fromDePaul University, speaking at the commencement exercises of the College of Communication and College of Computing and Digital Media.[37]
Axelrod first met Obama in 1992, when Bettylu Saltzman, a Chicago Democrat, introduced the two of them after Obama had impressed her at a black voter registration drive that he ran. Obama consulted Axelrod before he delivered a 2002 anti-war speech,[38] and asked him to read drafts of his bookThe Audacity of Hope.[39]
Axelrod contemplated taking a break from politics during the 2008 presidential campaign, as five of the candidates—Barack Obama,Hillary Clinton,John Edwards,Chris Dodd andTom Vilsack—were past clients. Personal ties between Axelrod and Hillary Clinton made it difficult, as she had raised significant funds forepilepsy on behalf of a foundation co-founded by Axelrod's wife and mother,Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE). (Axelrod's daughter suffers fromdevelopmental disabilities associated with chronic epilepticseizures.) Axelrod's wife even said that a 1999 conference Clinton convened to find a cure for the condition was "one of the most important things anyone has done for epilepsy."[40] Axelrod ultimately decided to participate in the Obama campaign, and served as chief strategist and media advisor for Obama. He toldThe Washington Post, "I thought that if I could help Barack Obama get to Washington, then I would have accomplished something great in my life."[12]
Axelrod contributed to the start of Obama's campaign by creating a five-minute Internet video released January 16, 2007.[41][42] He continued to use"man on the street"-style biographical videos to create a sense of intimacy and authenticity in the political ads.
While the Clinton campaign chose a strategy that emphasized experience, Axelrod helped to craft the Obama campaign's main theme of "change." He was critical of the Clinton campaign's positioning, and said that "being the consummate Washington insider is not where you want to be in a year when people want change...[Clinton's] initial strategic positioning was wrong and kind of played into our hands."[43] The change message played a factor in Obama'svictory in theIowa caucuses. "Just over half of [Iowa's] Democratic caucus-goers said change was the No. 1 factor they were looking for in a candidate, and 51 percent of those voters chose Barack Obama," saidCNN senior political analystBill Schneider. "That compares to only 19 percent of 'change' caucus-goers who preferred Clinton."[44] Axelrod also believed that the Clinton campaign underestimated the importance of the caucus states. "For all the talent and the money they had over there," says Axelrod, "they—bewilderingly—seemed to have little understanding for the caucuses and how important they would become."[44] In the 2008 primary season, Obama won a majority of the states that use the caucus format.
Axelrod is credited with implementing a strategy that encourages the participation of people, a lesson drawn partly fromHoward Dean's2004 presidential campaign as well as a personal goal of Barack Obama. Axelrod explained toRolling Stone, "When we started this race, Barack told us that he wanted the campaign to be a vehicle for involving people and giving them a stake in the kind of organizing he believed in". According to Axelrod, getting volunteers involved became the legacy of the campaign.[45] This includes drawing on "Web 2.0" technology and viral media to support a grassroots strategy. Obama's web platform allows supporters to blog, create their own personal page, and even phonebank from home. Axelrod's elaborate use of the Internet helped Obama to organize under-30 voters and build over 475,000 donors in 2007, most of whom were Internet donors contributing less than $100 each.[46] The Obama strategy stood in contrast to Hillary Clinton's campaign, which benefited from high name recognition, large donors and strong support among established Democratic leaders.
Politico described Axelrod as 'soft-spoken' and 'mild-mannered'[47] and it quoted one Obama aide in Chicago as saying, "Do you know how lucky we are that he is ourMark Penn?"[48] Democratic consultant and former colleague Dan Fee said of Axelrod, "He's a calming presence."[49] "He's not a screamer, like some of these guys," political advisor Bill Daley said of Axelrod in theChicago Tribune. "He has a good sense of humor, so he's able to defuse things."[50] In June 2008,The New York Times described Axelrod as a "campaign guru" with an "appreciation for Chicago-style politics."[51]
On November 20, 2008, Obama named Axelrod as a senior advisor to his administration. His role included crafting policy and communicating the President's message in coordination with President Obama, theObama administration, speechwriters, and the White House communications team.[52][53]
When details of the2010 United States foreclosure crisis were publicized in 2010, notablyrobo-signing, Axelrod was widely criticized for downplaying the magnitude of the crisis in his comments to the press,[54][55] telling the audience of CBS News'Face the Nation that the Obama administration's "hope is this moves rapidly and that this gets unwound very, very quickly" and that he's "not sure that a national moratorium" is called for since "there are in fact valid foreclosures that probably should go forward."[56] Notably, Axelrod made this statement after several banks had voluntarily suspended foreclosures and evictions in order to investigate improprieties.[57]
Axelrod left his White House senior advisor post on January 28, 2011. He was a top aide toObama's 2012 re-election campaign.[58][59] Axelrod stated that his job as Obama's chief campaign strategist in the 2012 campaign would be his final job as a political operative.[60]
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In January 2013, Axelrod established a bipartisanInstitute of Politics at theUniversity of Chicago, where he serves as director.[61] On January 23, 2013,La Stampa reported that Axelrod was helping Italian prime ministerMario Monti with his election campaign and had flown to Italy to meet with Monti ten days earlier.[62] Monti's coalition went on to come fourth with 10.5% of the vote in theItalian general election, 2013. On February 19, 2013, Axelrod joinedNBC News andMSNBC as a senior political analyst,[citation needed] a position he held until September 2015 when he moved toCNN.
In 2014 Axelrod was appointed senior strategic adviser to theBritish Labour Party to assist party leaderEd Miliband in the run-up to the2015 general election.[63]
He is the co-founder ofAKPD Message and Media, along withEric Sedler, and operated ASK Public Strategies, now called ASGK Public Strategies, which were sold in 2009. In February 2015 Axelrod's bookBeliever: My Forty Years in Politics was published.[64][failed verification]
In 2015, Axelrod began hosting apodcast titledThe Axe Files a series of in-depth discussions and interviews with various political figures.[65] In June 2019[66] he started thepodcastHacks on Tap with co-hostMike Murphy, a show where the two discuss news and updates from the 2020 presidential campaign trail.[67] He also joinedCNN as a senior political commentator in September 2015.[68]
In 2018, Axelrod vocally opposedDemocratic support for impeachment, arguing that if "we “normalize” impeachment as a political tool, it will be another hammer blow to our democracy".[69]
In 2022, he announced his intention[clarification needed] to retire as director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, and become a senior fellow and chair of its advisory board, effective January 2023. UChicago presidentPaul Alivisatos said of his tenure that "David’s leadership of the IOP has driven its incredible growth and success over the past decade."[70]
"Perched atop a mailbox near his family's apartment in Stuyvesant Town, 5-year-old David Axelrod watched intently as a charismatic John F. Kennedy rallied New Yorkers for his presidential campaign in the fall of 1960.
Although Chicago is home, Axelrod, 53, was born in New York's Lower East Side, into a leftwing Jewish family, his mother a journalist and his father a psychologist.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Senior Advisor to the President 2009–2011 Served alongside:Valerie Jarrett,Pete Rouse | Succeeded by |
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