Rahm Emanuel tells audiences that plenty of rivals have learned the hard way what happens when they get in his way.
“Nobody walked into the ring with Rahm Emanuel and didn’t walk out with a broken nose,” he told WMUR during a recent stop in New Hampshire. “I know how to fight, but more importantly, I know how to win.”
That line is part of a two-track pitch Mr. Emanuel is test-driving as he weighs a 2028 run. One track is aimed at ending what he describes as Trump-era chaos, the other at stopping what he casts as the cultural left’s drift.
The scrappy 66-year-old is leaning on a long resume as a political brawler in Congress, the Obama White House, Chicago City Hall and, most recently, the U.S. Embassy in Japan. He is now directing much of that energy at his own party.
From his perspective, Democrats have “lost the plot.” He said the party’s brand is too elitist and “weak and woke.”
He faults the party for embracing “defund the police,” branding law enforcement as racist and wading into culture war fights in schools.
“We are on the losing side of those cultural wars — full stop,” he said on “The Fifth Column” podcast. “You’re worried about bathroom access and locker room access? Why don’t you focus on classroom excellence?”
He also has questioned why Democrats are at odds with Title IX, a law the party once championed. “Why would you undercut the premise of Title IX with the ability of trans men playing in women’s sports?” he said. “To me, it is insane.”
Looking ahead, he is urging Democrats to offer a vision centered on government ethics, raising the federal minimum wage, and reducing the costs of housing and health care.
His travel schedule — Iowa, Mississippi, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and South Carolina — looks a lot like the early stages of a presidential campaign.
It remains to be seen how much appetite the party faithful have for a throwback to the Obama-Clinton era, a period that has drawn mounting criticism from the insurgent left, which has also taken shots at his record as Chicago mayor.
What is clear is that Mr. Emanuel could shake up the primary by squaring off against the more liberal candidates he likely blames for the party’s missteps — the same people who view his old-school approach as backward-looking.
He has tossed the base some red meat.
He criticized the Trump administration’s handling of military operations in Iran. He said it was “a war of choice, and it was a bad choice.” He argued that the military strikes have strengthened Iran’s nuclear posture and tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz. “The president wanted to degrade their nuclear capacity, and they discovered they have a nuclear option,” he said. “It’s called the Strait of Hormuz.”
He also pointed to the human cost. He described a soldier killed in the operation who left behind infant twins and questioned the suggestion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu influenced the decision. “On that fireplace mantle will be an American flag in a wooden triangle,” he said. “The idea that somebody else told him to do this … says he has no agency.”
Alongside those critiques, Mr. Emanuel is pitching a ban on stock trading and prediction market bets by all federal employees, and a mandatory retirement age of 75 for members of Congress and Supreme Court justices. “The United States Senate used to be where you aspired to serve,” he said. “Today, it’s where you go to retire.”
He said the Democratic Party let cultural fights pull it away from working-class voters, landing in what he called “a cultural cul-de-sac that leads nowhere.” He pointed to one statistic he finds especially troubling: that half of American children are not reading at grade level. He said the lack of urgency is baffling.
“There’s no emergency meeting,” he said. “There’s nobody calling an emergency. What do we do?”
He is pushing a national service plan: six months required for all young Americans, with an optional two-year extension rewarded with help with a home down payment.
“You take two years and do something for America, we’re going to give you a down payment on the American dream,” he said.
Mr. Emanuel, who led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 when Democrats retook the House, said the party has a golden opportunity this fall. He pointed to a recent North Carolina Republican primary — in which state Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, backed by Mr. Trump, conceded defeat — as evidence that the president’s grip on his party may be loosening.
“They just discovered the president doesn’t have any sway in the Republican primary,” he said.
He hasn’t announced a run but isn’t ruling one out either. “I’m not doing it here,” he said during his recent stop in New Hampshire.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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