Nora Roberts
American romance writer
Bill Weld is an American attorney, businessman, author, and politician who served as the 68th Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. He’s had a long and varied career, including working as a federal prosecutor, running for Senate and President, and serving as a Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate.
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About the Bill Weld
William Floyd Weldis an American attorney, businessman, author, and politician who served as the 68th Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997.
A Harvard graduate, Weld began his career as legal counsel to the United States House Committee on the Judiciary before becoming the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and later, the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. He worked on a series of high-profile public corruption cases and later resigned in protest of an ethics scandal and associated investigations into Attorney General Edwin Meese.
Weld was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1990. In the 1994 election, he was reelected by the largest margin of victory in Massachusetts history. In 1996, he was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate in Massachusetts, losing to Democratic incumbent John Kerry. Weld resigned as governor in 1997 to focus on his nomination by President Bill Clinton to serve as United States Ambassador to Mexico; due to opposition by socially conservative Senate Foreign Relations committee Chairman Jesse Helms, he was denied a hearing before the Foreign Relations committee and withdrew his nomination. After moving to New York in 2000, Weld sought the Republican nomination for Governor of New York in the 2006 election; when the Republican Party instead endorsed John Faso, Weld withdrew from the race.
Weld became involved in presidential politics in later years. In 2016, he left the Republican Party to become the Libertarian Party running mate of former governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson. They received nearly 4.5 million votes, the highest number for a Libertarian ticket, and the best for any third-party ticket since 1996 with Ross Perot’s Reform Party.
Returning to the Republican Party, Weld announced in April 2019 that he would challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primaries, launching his campaign. He won his first and only delegate of the primaries in the Iowa caucus in February, making him the first Republican since Pat Buchanan in 1992 to win a delegate while running against an incumbent president. Weld suspended his campaign on March 18, 2020, shortly after Trump’s delegate count made him the presumptive Republican nominee, and ultimately placed second in 22 states and second overall with 2.4% of the popular vote, collecting relevant percentages of up to 13% in protest-votes against Trump in several states. He also placed second in allocated delegates. He endorsed Democrat Joe Biden seven months later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bill Weld is a Harvard graduate who began his career as legal counsel to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary before becoming a federal prosecutor and serving as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division.
Bill Weld was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1990 and was re-elected in 1994 by the largest margin of victory in Massachusetts history.
In 1996, Bill Weld was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, losing to Democratic incumbent John Kerry. He later sought the Republican nomination for Governor of New York in 2006 but withdrew from the race. In 2016, he ran as the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate.
In 1997, Bill Weld resigned as Governor of Massachusetts to focus on his nomination by President Bill Clinton to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, but he was denied a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations committee and withdrew his nomination.
In 2019, Bill Weld announced he would challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primaries. He won his first and only delegate in the Iowa caucus, making him the first Republican since Pat Buchanan in 1992 to win a delegate while running against an incumbent president. Weld suspended his campaign in March 2020 and placed second overall with 2.4% of the popular vote.
Bill Weld has been affiliated with both the Republican and Libertarian parties over the course of his political career. He left the Republican Party to become the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 2016, but later returned to the Republican Party to challenge President Trump in the 2020 primaries.
After resigning as Governor of Massachusetts in 1997, Bill Weld focused on his nomination by President Clinton to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, but was ultimately denied a hearing and withdrew his nomination. He later moved to New York in 2000 and sought the Republican nomination for Governor of New York in 2006, but withdrew from the race.
2 Quotes by Bill Weld
- 1.
People aren’t stupid. I mean, people remember in 1990, the unemployment rate was 10 percent. Now it’s 4 _ percent. We’ve got 1/4 million jobs that we’ve created.
Bill WeldAmerican politician, Governor of Massachusetts (1991-1997)
- 2.
Speaking of tax fairness, it was Senator Kerry who voted to increase the income tax on senior citizens on Social Security, earning as little as $32,000 a year.
Bill WeldAmerican politician, Governor of Massachusetts (1991-1997)