Bill Weld
William Weld served as the Republican governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997.
Weld announced that he was running for president of the United States on April 15, 2019.[1] He suspended his campaign on March 18, 2020.[2]
He announced that he had formed a presidential exploratory committee on February 15, 2019.[3] Weld focused the lead-up to his run on criticisms of President Donald Trump's personality and economic policies, saying the president was paying more attention to dividing people than addressing the problem of overspending or preparing to replace jobs that will be lost to automation in the near future.[4][5]
Weld was a Libertarian candidate for vice president of the United States in 2016.
Biography
Weld was born in 1945 and grew up in Long Island. He received a bachelor's degree in classics from Harvard College, graduating summa cum laude. He then received a diploma in international economics from Oxford University before returning to Harvard to attend law school, where he received a J.D.[6]
Weld clerked for a year at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court before entering private practice at the law firm Hill & Barlow in Boston. In 1981, he was appointed U.S. attorney for Massachusetts under Republican President Ronald Reagan. He served until 1986, when he assumed the position of assistant U.S. attorney general at the Department of Justice's criminal division. He left the Department of Justice in 1987.[7]
Weld was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1990, becoming the first Republican to win a gubernatorial election in the state in 20 years. Weld beat Democratic candidate John Silber by 4 points. In 1994, he was re-elected with 71 percent of the vote.[8]
Weld ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1996. He resigned as governor in 1997 to pursue a nomination by President Bill Clinton (D) as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, a position to which he was not confirmed. He then re-entered private practice in New York.[9] Weld ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York in 2006. He withdrew from the Republican primary after the party endorsed John Faso (R) and ran instead as a Libertarian, receiving 2 percent of the vote in the general election.[10]
Weld ran for vice president of the United States in 2016 on the Libertarian ticket with Gary Johnson as the presidential candidate.
Education
- 1966: Bachelor's in classics, Harvard College
- 1967: Diploma in economics and political science, Oxford University
- 1970: J.D., Harvard Law School[7]
Political career
Governor of Massachusetts (1991-1997)
Weld was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1990, defeating Democrat John Silber in the general election to become the first Republican to win the office in 20 years.
Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993
In 1993, Weld approved the Massachusetts Education Reform Act. The legislation doubled state funding for K-12 public education and created standardized benchmarks for student success across the state, including the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, a multi-subject assessment that was administered at multiple grade levels. The bill also gave the board of education the authority to develop curriculum and instructional standards.
"A good education in a safe environment is the magic wand that brings opportunity," Weld stated regarding the legislation.[11]
Resignation and nomination as U.S. ambassador to Mexico
On July 29, 1997, Weld resigned from his post as governor of Massachusetts to pursue a nomination to serve as ambassador to Mexico. Weld had been nominated by President Bill Clinton (D) earlier that year; however, Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.)—then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—refused to hold confirmation hearings for Weld, criticizing his stance on drugs as too soft.[12]
"I don't believe it would be fair to the people of Massachusetts to permit the conduct of their government to become embroiled in the vagaries of Washington politics," Weld commented on his resignation from the governorship.[12] He eventually withdrew his name for consideration in September of that year.[13]
Weld later told New York Magazine that the nomination had resulted from a series of talks with the Clintons in which they discussed various possible cabinet positions and ambassadorial appointments for Weld. "I gave them six [possible positions], and I got back a list of three: the Court of St. James, India, and Mexico. I chose Mexico, which is the one that Bill and Hillary hoped I would choose," he stated.[9]
Assistant U.S. attorney general (1986-1987)
Weld briefly served as the assistant U.S. attorney general overseeing the criminal division in the Department of Justice from 1986 to 1987. He eventually resigned after conflicts with U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese, who appointed Weld to the position, over which division of the department should investigate the Iran-contra affair.[9]
U.S. attorney for Massachusetts (1981-1986)
Weld was named U.S. attorney for Massachusetts after Republican President Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1981. He served until his promotion to assistant U.S. attorney general in 1986.[9]
Elections
2020
Presidency
- See also: Presidential candidates, 2020
Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) won the presidential election on November 3, 2020. Biden received 306 electoral votes and President Donald Trump (R) received 232 electoral votes. In the national popular vote, Biden received 81.2 million votes and Trump received 74.2 million votes.
Weld announced that he was running for president on February 15, 2019.[1] He suspended his campaign on March 18, 2020.[2]
Ballotpedia compiled the following resources about Weld and the 2020 presidential election:
- News stories about the 2020 presidential election;
- An overview of key national and state campaign staffers;
- Endorsements from politicians, public figures, and organizations;
- A list of other presidential candidates who ran for election.
Click here for Weld's 2020 presidential campaign overview.
2016
Weld was running as a Libertarian candidate for vice president of the United States in the 2016 election. The Libertarian candidate for president, former Republican New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, announced that Weld would join his campaign on May 19, 2016.[14]
| U.S. presidential election, 2016 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine | 48.3% | 65,844,969 | 227 | |
| Republican |  Donald Trump/Mike Pence |
46.2% | 62,979,984 | 304 | |
| Libertarian | Gary Johnson/Bill Weld | 3.3% | 4,492,919 | 0 | |
| Green | Jill Stein/Ajamu Baraka | 1.1% | 1,449,370 | 0 | |
| - | Other | 1.2% | 1,684,908 | 7 | |
| Total Votes | 136,452,150 | 538 | |||
| Election results via: Ballotpedia | |||||
Note: Trump and Clinton were projected to receive 306 and 232 electoral votes, respectively. Seven electors, however, cast votes for other candidates. Read about what happened here. The results listed above are based on reports from state secretary of state offices and election boards.
2006
Weld entered the race for governor of New York in 2006 as a Republican candidate. He lost the nomination to his competitor John Faso, with analysts stating that he was too moderate to appeal to New York's conservative right.[15] In April 2006, Weld announced he would seek the Libertarian nomination for the gubernatorial race, winning the nomination that same month. Weld lost to Democrat Eliot Spitzer, who secured 70 percent of the vote over Faso's 28 percent; Weld received less than 2 percent.[16]
1996
In 1996, Weld ran as a Republican for a seat representing Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate. He was defeated by incumbent Senator John Kerry (D) in the general election by a 7 percentage point margin of victory.[15]
1994
Weld won re-election to a second term as governor of Massachusetts in 1994 by the largest margin in Massachusetts history, garnering 71 percent of the vote. He ran against challenger Mark Roosevelt (D), great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt.[15][17]
1990
Weld successfully ran for governor of Massachusetts in 1990, defeating Democratic challenger John R. Silber by a 4 percentage point margin of victory. The Massachusetts secretary of state declared the turnout for the election, which was 70 percent, the highest since 1962. Weld's victory was considered significant in a largely liberal state that hadn't elected a Republican governor in 20 years.[18]
1978
Weld ran for Massachusetts attorney general in 1978, losing to incumbent Democrat Francis Bellotti.[9][19]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms William Weld Vice President. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 CNN, "Bill Weld officially announces he is challenging Trump for GOP nomination in 2020," April 15, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 NBC News, "Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld ends long-shot primary challenge to Trump," March 18, 2020
- ↑ Boston Herald, "Bill Weld launches GOP presidential exploratory committee," February 15, 2019
- ↑ RealClearPolitics, "Bill Weld on Trump Primary Challenge: 'Republicans In Washington Want To Have No Election Basically,'" February 17, 2019
- ↑ WMUR, "Republican William Weld announces launch of presidential exploratory committee," February 15, 2019
- ↑ World Affairs Council of New Hampshire, "Governor Bill Weld: What Role Should America Play In The World Today," accessed July 21, 2019
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 National Governors Association, "William Floyd Weld," accessed May 19, 2016
- ↑ Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "Election Stats," accessed July 8, 2019
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 New York Magazine, "Running Weld," accessed May 19, 2016
- ↑ USA Today, "Spitzer elected New York governor," November 8, 2006
- ↑ KPBS, "How Massachusetts became the best state in education," April 26, 2016
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 The Journal Times, "Weld steps down from lofty post," July 29, 1997
- ↑ AllPolitics, "Welds quits nomination fight," September 15, 1997
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namednycand - ↑ USA Today, "Spitzer elected New York governor," November 8, 2006
- ↑ Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "Mark Roosevelt (D)," accessed May 19, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, "The 1990 elections: Massachusetts; Weld reaffirms pledge to shrink government," November 8, 1990
- ↑ Harvard Magazine, "The Welds of Harvard Yard," November 1998
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Michael Dukakis (D) |
Governor of Massachusetts 1991-1997 |
Succeeded by Argeo Paul Cellucci (R) |
