William M. Daley

In 1993, he served as Special Counsel to the President on issues relating to the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).[19]

Daley resigned as commerce secretary to become general chairman of Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign, replacing Tony Coelho.[20] He was portrayed in the HBO film Recount, about the Florida election recount of the 2000 presidential election, by actor Mitch Pileggi.

During the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, Daley was a prominent supporter of Barack Obama. On November 5, 2008, Daley was named to the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.[21]

President Obama welcomes Daley (left) as the new Chief of Staff in January 2011.

On January 6, 2011, President Barack Obama named Daley as his next White House Chief of Staff, and he took office on January 13, 2011. Daley succeeded Rahm Emanuel, who served as Chief of Staff during the first two years of the President's term and left the position in October 2010 to run to succeed Daley's brother as Mayor of Chicago, and Pete Rouse, who was serving as the interim chief of staff.

In March 2011, speaking for the Obama administration on Meet the Press, Daley said the administration will consider using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve if rising oil prices caused by Arab Spring threaten the U.S. economy. Daley said Obama "is very concerned; we're trying to look at all the possible options." He repeated the administration's stance that there is enough output capacity in the world to deal with any disruptions from Libya.[22]

Daley, upper center-right, standing with the U.S. national security team gathered in the Situation Room to monitor the progress of Operation Neptune Spear.

Daley was photographed in the White House Situation Room photograph taken on May 1, 2011, by Pete Souza. Later in May 2011, he was part of the Presidential State Visit to the United Kingdom.[23]

In October 2011, Daley said he planned to return home to Chicago after President Obama made it through his re-election. "I made a commitment to put the president through his re-election, which I'm confident he will do, and then my wife and I will be back in Chicago."[24]

On January 9, 2012, it was announced that Daley would resign as Obama's Chief of Staff.[25] Jack Lew was announced as his successor.

Just after the 2012 presidential election, in the November 8, 2012, issue of the Chicago Tribune, Daley was reported as considering a run in the 2014 election for Governor of Illinois. Daley said "I've thought about it before and I don't take it off the table. I think right now, to be very frank with you, the last thing in the world anybody wants to hear about is a race that's two years down the road." Daley further was quoted as saying: "I'm not closing the door and, I know that sounds like a politician, but the fact of the matter is that these are tough days and I think there's a lot to be done by the Legislature. I don't think it helps right now for people to be out there saying they're going to run and they have a solution at this point. I think we've got to see what the Legislature does."

Logo from Daley's gubernatorial campaign effort

On June 10, 2013, Daley announced via YouTube that he would launch an exploratory committee to run for Governor of Illinois. On July 2, 2013, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed Daley for governor. On July 30, 2013, Daley filed documents declaring himself an official candidate to challenge incumbent Governor Pat Quinn in the 2014 Democratic primary. On September 16, 2013, Daley made a surprise announcement that he was exiting the race due to the personal hardships inherent in running a campaign for elected office.[26]

After the election, Bill Daley served as co-chair of the transition team for the incoming Rauner Administration.[27]

In 2018, Daley served as the head of finances for the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy.[28]

Mayoral campaign logo

After two-term mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he would not seek reelection, it was reported on September 14, 2018, that Daley would run for mayor of Chicago.[29]

Daley's candidacy made the 2019 election the fourteenth Chicago mayoral election in which a member of his family has been a candidate. William's father won the 1955, 1959, 1963, 1967, 1971, and 1975 elections. His brother won the 1989, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, and was an unsuccessful candidate in the 1983 election. This means that a member of the Daley family participated in all but four of the eighteen Chicago mayoral elections held between 1955 and 2019 (with no member of the Daley family having run in the 1979, 1987, 2011, or 2015 elections).

Among the positions Daley took was support of the city exploring the potential implementation of a commuter tax.[30] He also proposed reducing the size of the Chicago City Council from 50 members to 15.[31]

Daley was one of four mayoral candidates (alongside Gery Chico, Susana Mendoza, and Toni Preckwinkle) that had ties to Alderman Edward M. Burke, whose corruption scandal upended the race for mayor.[32][33][34][35] However, Daley's ties were weaker than the other three, and thus, he was perceived to have suffered the least amount of damage from the scandal of the four.[35]

Daley carried support from the city's business community.[36]

Daley's campaign received endorsements from the editorial boards of the Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business, and The Chicago Crusader.[37][38][39] He received the endorsement of Plumbers Local Union 130[40] He also received endorsements from politicians Al Gore, Emil Jones, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Bobby Rush.[41][42][43][44]

Daley's campaign placed an emphasis on fundraising.[45] Daley vastly out-fundraised his opponents. A significant financial contributor to Daley's campaign was Illinois billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin.[46] Griffin's financial support of Daley's campaign proved controversial for Daley, largely because Griffin had also been a major financial backer of the failed 2018 reelection campaign of Republican former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner.[45]

Daley's strong fundraising enabled him to run highly visible advertising.[45]

Daley ran a weaker field operation than some other candidates did.[47]

In the last several weeks of the campaign, Daley began to rise in the polls.[47] However, he also began to be the subject of attack ads run by the union-affiliated Fight Back for a Better Tomorrow Super PAC.[47] At the end of the election campaign, polls showed Daley having strong prospects of finishing near the top of the field.[35]

Daley placed third in the election, failing to advance to the runoff. He won 82,294 votes, 14.78% the overall votes cast in the first round. The margin between him and second-place finisher Toni Preckwinkle was 7,049 votes.[48][49]