U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Israel Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff and mayor of Chicago—is considering a run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Axios reported on Friday, citing three sources with knowledge of the situation.
The Jewish diplomat, 64, has asked fellow Democrats about the process and whether there is a list of the few hundred DNC members who will elect the next chairperson, people familiar with the matter told Axios.
Emanuel declined to comment on the leadership contest. Other names that are being mentioned include former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Axios reported.
The current DNC chair, Jamie Harrison, was elected in 2021 and is unlikely to seek another term in March following an election in which Republicans secured control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Emanuel, who was mayor of Chicago in 2011-19 after a 20-month stint as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, was appointed as envoy to Tokyo at the nomination of President Joe Biden on March 25, 2022.
Following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border terrorist massacre in Israel’s northwestern Negev, a home in Gordon Beach, Mich., belonging to Emanuel’s family was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.
“Our family is very proud of how our friends, neighbors and the community have rallied to our support and in a singular voice in condemning hatred and bigotry,” Emanuel told local media at the time. The ambassador was reportedly in Chicago at the time of the incident.
Photos showed the word “Nazis,” with the last letter forming a dollar sign, painted in black on a wooden fence at the property on Lake Michigan. The second letter appeared to be an anarchist symbol.
At a 2003 pro-Israel rally in Chicago, Emanuel said Israel was “ready for peace” but would not get there until Palestinians “turn away from the path of terror.”
During the 1991 Gulf War, Emanuel traveled to Israel for a two-week civilian volunteer vacation, during which he assisted the Israel Defense Forces as a civilian, helping to repair trucks at an army base in the north.
