PERSON: Rahm Emanuel

Government of the U.S.

United States Ambassador to Japan

Rahm Israel Emanuel (/rɑːm/; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat currently serving as United States ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives for three terms from 2003 to 2009. He was the White House Chief of Staff from 2009 to 2010 under Barack Obama and served as mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019.

Born in Chicago, Emanuel is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Northwestern University. Early in his career, Emanuel served as director of the finance committee for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. In 1993, he joined the Clinton administration, where he served as assistant to the president for political affairs and as Senior Advisor to the President for policy and strategy. Emanuel worked at the investment bank Wasserstein Perella & Co. From 1998 for two-and-a-half years, and served on the board of directors of Freddie Mac. In 2002, he ran for the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives vacated by Rod Blagojevich, who resigned to become governor of Illinois. Emanuel won the first of three terms representing Illinois’s 5th congressional district, a seat he held from 2003 to 2009. As chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he oversaw Democratic wins in the 2006 United States House of Representatives elections, allowing the party to gain control of the chamber for the first time since 1994.

After the 2008 U.S. presidential election, President Barack Obama appointed Emanuel to serve as White House chief of staff. In October 2010, Emanuel resigned as chief of staff to run in the 2011 Chicago mayoral election. Emanuel won with 55% of the vote over five other candidates in the non-partisan mayoral election. In the 2015 Chicago mayoral election, he failed to obtain an absolute majority in the first round but defeated Cook County board commissioner Jesús “Chuy” García in the subsequent run-off election. In late 2015, Emanuel’s approval rating plunged to “the low 20s,” in response to a series of scandals.

In October 2017, Emanuel announced he planned to run for a third term, but reversed his decision on September 4, 2018. The Chicago Tribune assessed Emanuel’s performance as mayor as “mixed,” and at one point half of Chicagoans favored Emanuel’s resignation. He left office in May 2019 and was succeeded by Lori Lightfoot. In August 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Emanuel to be the United States Ambassador to Japan; he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December of that year.

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