EXCLUSIVE — Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel strongly implied he would run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. He previewed a “rough and tumble” campaign based on candor in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Emanuel, the former Illinois congressman who served in three presidential administrations, suggested his “Rahm-bo” reputation could cut through with voters amid criticism of former President Joe Biden‘s administration and doubts that Democrats can overcome fundraising and enthusiasm gaps with President Donald Trump’s base.
“People that just do talking points and look and sound like regular politicians, that’s passe,” Emanuel told the Washington Examiner. “People don’t want that.”
Much like how Trump built a following based on his no-holds-barred style, Emanuel suggested his bluntness could translate to retail politics in early voting states. He cited his six-for-six election record and “an appetite for candor, authenticity, and straight talk.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Emanuel contended that his reputation for “being direct” resulted in him receiving the call while he was in the White House for former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, “when you needed somebody to do the hard things.”
“When somebody had to take on the Washington gun lobby to pass the assault weapon ban, Mr. Rough-and-Tumble was the direct line. When somebody had to take on the insurance companies to make sure 10 million kids got health insurance, right here, I got the phone call. When you had to pass reforming the banks and regulations around the banks, I got the call,” he said.
“So, yeah, I don’t shy away from fights. If you think the Oval Office is a place for easy, for going along and getting along, I’m not your guy. But trust me, that’s a business of rough and tumble. I played it, I know it, and I know how to take on the very people that have been giving people the shaft around here.”
Emanuel’s “Rahm-bo” reputation started early in his political career when, for example, he sent a dead fish to a pollster who did not report their findings on time. He also repeatedly plunged a steak knife into a table as he shouted “death” during a celebratory dinner after the 1992 election to underscore his displeasure with Democrats he considered to have “betrayed” Clinton.
But in a sit-down with the Washington Examiner, Emanuel remained adamant that his “direct” approach to politics — demonstrated as a White House senior adviser to Clinton, Obama’s first White House chief of staff, and, most recently, Biden’s ambassador to Japan, among others — could be an advantage on the campaign trail.
“How do you know that people don’t like that?” he asked. “You’ll go on the campaign trail, and we’ll see whether just reading talking points with no heartfelt, real commitment to it versus somebody that’s going to tell you the truth. Now, you could argue, sometimes I’ll tell you my opinion, even when you don’t ask for it. That’s fair. But here’s the thing: nobody walks away from a meeting saying, ‘I don’t know what his position is.’”
Emanuel is not wrong. At least related to Biden, a Fox News poll conducted last month found that even one in five Democrats supported investigating whether there was a cover-up of the former president’s physical and mental decline, while about one in four were for inquiries into his use of an autopen and his decisions.
Two and a half years before the first votes are cast in the 2028 primaries, Democratic contenders are already delivering keynote addresses and traveling to early voting states, including Emanuel, who is expected to be in Iowa for a fish fry in September.
But Emanuel is not the only Chicago Democrat contemplating a presidential campaign. The other is Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), despite the billionaire announcing last month that he would seek reelection as Illinois’ chief executive.
Emanuel maintained that there was enough room in the hypothetical primary for two Chicago politicians, but he had the edge in real White House decision-making.
“J.B. and I are friends. It’ll be awkward. But you know the question isn’t whether there’s enough room. The question is, do you have enough ideas? Do you have the record and the strength to have not just the ideas, but the ability to execute and see it real?” he asked.
“A president has to be comfortable in the family room and understand the issues that are pressing on families, comfortable in the classroom and making sure that our education system meets its goals, comfortable in the boardroom and creating jobs, comfortable in the Situation Room for the crisis, and periodically be comfortable in that emergency room. If you haven’t done those, you’re not ready for it.”
Mamdani spillover in New Jersey
Throughout his career, Emanuel has advocated for more centrist Democratic politics, endorsing centrist candidates as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and championing a more incremental approach to healthcare reform rather than the Obamacare law passed by Congress. He has reiterated his stance since last year’s election.
Simultaneously, Emanuel downplayed concerns that the likes of New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, is undercutting Democrats more broadly as Republicans criticize him for his policies, from fare-free city buses to city-owned grocery stores.
“If you asked me what I was worried about, I’d be less worried about that than the spillover of his race into the New Jersey media market, of the northern part of New Jersey, impacting, I don’t think it’s happened yet, but could be impacting the New Jersey gubernatorial race,” he said. “I know what [President Donald Trump’s] people are doing, but I know what matters.”
New Jersey and Virginia’s off-year elections will complement New York’s mayoral contest this November.
For Emanuel, Mamdani experienced “a perfect storm” because his opponent was disgraced former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and his campaign was “disciplined” concerning his “message of affordability.”
Cuomo announced on Monday an independent campaign to become New York City mayor.
“He made the message of affordability feel, sound, and look like change,” Emanuel said. “So he fused both affordability and change at a time when people are pretty angry at the establishment, and the opponents played establishment pretty, they played their role that made his message sharper.”
To that end, Emanuel insisted that there is “agreement” among Democrats, regardless of whether they are centrists or of the left-wing, that the American dream is currently a “struggle” when it should be “a shot.”
“The system is rigged against people’s success,” he said. “The critique is uniformity. The solutions is where there’s disagreement.”
Midterm strategy
When it comes to next year’s midterm elections and Democrats’ chances of claiming control of one chamber of Congress, Emanuel advised Democrats to emphasize Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and not “shiny bauble” distractions, including the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Eighteen months before the midterm elections, Democrats have an average two-point edge over Republicans in generic congressional ballot polling, 45%-43%, according to RealClearPolitics.
“In that bill is the road map for the midterms,” he said. “This bill is the case you want to take to the public, and you want to make it about the fact that the Republicans are rubber stamps to Donald Trump. The one thing you can see very clearly among independent voters: they do not like an untethered, unchecked, unmoored Donald Trump. The Congress is playing a supplicant role when they should be playing something else, and that’s our opportunity.”
Emanuel similarly dismissed Republican attempts to remind the public about Biden with congressional investigations into his administration’s alleged cover-up of his acuity, along with his autopen use.
“The counter on that is they want to look backwards. We want to look forward. They don’t want you to know about all the cuts in healthcare,” he said. “Republicans decided to make it harder to get cheaper energy, and I think that’s another argument to be made, and they don’t want you to see that. They want you to focus on the last election, and we want to focus on you and your family’s future.”
At the same time, Emanuel issued a warning to Democrats about fundraising, coinciding with second-quarter disclosure deadlines, after Trump operatives last month confirmed the president had raised $1.4 billion in commitments since last year’s election.
“The party has done well historically on the fundraising,” he said. “I saw the other day that Trump’s PAC has like $1.6 billion in it. I do believe we’ll have the resources we need. It’s whether you have the resources you need based on what the other side also has.”
As Emanuel reemerges in Democratic politics, so has his former boss, Obama, after last year’s election.
Obama last weekend addressed a Democratic National Committee fundraiser attended by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), who is the New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial nominee, who Emanuel is concerned could be affected by Mamdani’s campaign across the Hudson River.
During his remarks last Friday, Obama implored Democrats to “toughen up” and “stop looking for the Messiah.”
“I haven’t been surprised by what Trump’s done,” Obama said. “What I have been surprised by is the degree to which I’ve seen people who, when I was president, progressives, liberals, stood for all kinds of stuff, who seem like they’re kind of cowed, and intimidated, and shrinking away from just asserting what they believe, or at least what they said they believe.”
During his interview with the Washington Examiner, Emanuel sidestepped a question about whether Obama expressed any concerns to him about Biden before former Vice President Kamala Harris replaced the then-president as the 2024 Democratic nominee.
“First of all, no. Second of all, if he did, I wouldn’t tell you,” Emanuel quipped.