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WASHINGTON — Rahm Emanuel is a fighter, and proud of it.
“Nobody has ever gotten into the ring with me and not walked out with a broken nose,” he told The Post during a half-hour interview this week.
Now the former Obama White House chief of staff and mayor of Chicago is spoiling for his hardest fight yet — potentially running for president in 2028.
“If I was to run, it would be about making sure people have what it takes to build a better life,” he said.
“Do I brawl? Yes, I do. But it’s not pitting one American against the other. It’s getting Americans a minimum wage, it’s getting kids universal pre-K that never had it.
“There was no kindergarten in Chicago, there was no pre-K in Chicago. Our graduation rate was 56% and I drove it to 83% and 67% of our kids went on to college.”
It’s tempting to view the 66-year-old as yesterday’s man. By the time 2028 rolls around, it will be 20 years since Emanuel’s former boss was elected the first black US president and nine years since Emanuel himself left Chicago’s City Hall with an approval rating of barely 25%. His only public role since then has been three relatively quiet years as Joe Biden’s ambassador to Japan.
Emanuel’s response is that Democrats need to look backward to move forward, with one strategist emphasizing that his approach was “right out of the Clinton playbook.”
“A problem for my party is, in the last four years, the only room we were comfortable in was the bathroom,” he told The Post, referring to the party’s advocacy on transgender issues.
“If you want to run for president and do the job, you’ve got to be comfortable in the family room, the classroom, the board room, the break room, and the Situation Room, not just the bathroom.”
“I do think the Democrats, at least in the last election, got themselves wrapped around the axle in a cultural cul-de-sac, where we were advocating for a set of issues that may come across as primary to us, but they were secondary to the public,” Emanuel added.
“We brought the culture wars to our schools and lost.”
‘Ambitions taller than he stands’
Polls of a hypothetical 2028 Democratic primary don’t even mention Emanuel, instead testing headline-grabbers like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and even Emanuel’s friend and Illinois governor, JB Pritzker.
But Democratic sources not affiliated with Emanuel say that he would have some built-in advantages if he did decide to run – namely his relationship with the still-popular Obama and his deep ties with business titans, major donors, and even A-list celebrities via his brother, Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel.
“He’s trying to listen at least as much as he talks, which for him is very hard,” revealed a Democratic strategist who has worked with Emanuel in the past.
“He’s been in Central Park penthouses making his case. He’s making his case at the highest level of New York — literally, penthouses.”
This person added of the 5-foot-7 Emanuel: “His ambitions are certainly taller than he stands, but no one ever said short guys can’t jump.”
A friend who worked with Emanuel during his mayoralty pointed out that he still enjoys a broad support network, including staffers from his days as a congressman in the mid-2000s who are volunteering their services as he weighs his political future.
“Folks around him stick with him for a long time,” this source said, “because he builds up that loyalty and excitement and energy around actually getting things done.”
“His ties to the party run deep and wide, very deep, and he’s fought a lot of great battles,” the person went on. “He’s uniquely positioned himself in a lane of somebody who has gotten things done at the local and national level with two presidents and as mayor.”
The Israel question
Emanuel may want to be the Democratic standard-bearer, but do Democrats want him to bear the standard?
The strategist who previously worked with Emanuel insisted many of the party’s voters are eager for a pragmatist to steer the party back toward the political center, but the “zeitgeist” favors “people who can espouse and project and showcase chaos” such as Ocasio-Cortez.
The source predicted that Emanuel will “pick and choose places where he can showcase that he’s ‘left’” to improve his standing, pointing to his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Emanuel, who recently called for an end to US military aid to the Jewish state, is scheduled to visit Israel in July for a talk at Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of the United States.)
Three of the potential 2028 Democratic nominees – Emanuel, Pritzker and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro – are Jewish and would face questions about how they would deal with Israel amid widespread left-wing backlash over its wars against Hamas and Iran.
Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, claimed a lot of American Jews can relate to Emanuel’s position of “being both pro-Israel and disagreeing with this current government.”
“Whether they’re elected or not is not riding on the fact they’re Jewish,” she said. “It’s really about selecting the best candidate.”
“It’s good for the party that he thinks there’s still a chance for people like him,” the strategist said of Emanuel. “And I say that as someone that would prefer someone with his skill set, with his demeanor and experience. But I lament that that’s not really what the market is seeking.”
A former Biden White House official said Emanuel would have to find a way to win over black voters due to his handling of the 2014 murder of LaQuan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. Emanuel’s administration sat on dashcam footage of the shooting for 13 months before a court ordered its release. (Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder in 2018 and was released after serving just over three years in prison.)
“Anyone can run his record in Chicago and that’ll shut down his black votes which you need to even be credible,” said this official. “He already did the South Carolina trip and the response was lukewarm.”
Well-connected friends
Emanuel’s network extends beyond politics. His best friend is Michael J. Sacks, the billionaire CEO of Chicago-based GCM Grosvenor asset management firm. Sacks is a top donor to Democrats, even helping Obama with construction of his massive presidential center on the city’s South Side.
As for Ari, he and Rahm speak daily but maintain professional distance, a source noted. Ari Emanuel would hold fundraisers for his brother’s previous campaigns but took no formal role, a situation that could change at the presidential level.
“I don’t think he will win the nomination,” summed up a veteran Democratic operative, “but he will push the conversation, which is always a benefit. Democrats need to have a competitive primary and welcome all ideas.
“But if he can get some early wins, he could do it.”
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