David Axelrod Biography
David Axelrod is an American veteran of politics and journalism who is working for CNN as the host of The Axe Files, a podcast. The podcast is jointly produced by CNN and his institute. Also, he serves as director of the University of Chicago’s independent Institute of Politics. He joined the network in 2015 as a Senior Political Commentator.
How Old is David Axelrod?
Axelrod was born on February 22nd, 1955 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. He is 67 years old as of 2022.
David Axelrod Height / Measurements
Axelrod is of an average body stature and stands at an approximate height of 5 feet and 7 inches.
David Axelrod Partner/ Wife
Axelrod exchanged vows with his wife, Susan Landau in 1979. As of 2022, the couple celebrated their 43rd anniversary together. They met at the University of Chicago where Landau was serving as a business student. Landau is the child of a research doctor, Richard L. Landau. The couple has three kids together. However, we will update information about his spouse once it’s available.
David Axelrod Kids / Children
Axelrod has three kids with his wife. Lauren was born on June 18th, 1981. She is 41 years old as of 2022. Further, she suffers from developmental disabilities associated with chronic epileptic seizures. Additionally, she was diagnosed with epilepsy at 7 months old. After struggling to find programs that would keep her happy and fulfilled, she was put in Misericordia. It is a large dormitory-style group home in 2002, where she leads an active life.
“My beautiful, valiant daughter Lauren began having uncontrollable seizures when she was seven months old. Her struggles with epilepsy would define her life—and ours. And in the early years, so would our battles with insurance companies who denied her because of her pre-existing condition.
The Affordable Care Act changed th..” He posted on his Instagram account.
Even so, he manages to keep information regarding his kids away from the limelight. Also, he has two grandkids. However, we will update this information about his children once it’s available.
David Axelrod Family / Relatives
Axelrod was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City to Joseph Axelrod and Myril Bennett (née Davidson). His mother, Bennett served as a journalist at PM, a liberal-leaning 1940s newspaper. Later, she served at Young & Rubicam as an advertising executive. On the other hand, his father served as a psychologist.
Moreover, he is an ardent baseball fan who migrated from Eastern Europe to the United States at the age of eleven. His parents divorced when he was 8 years old. In 2021, Axelrod revealed in a CNN op-ed that his father suffered from severe clinical depression. At age 20, his father committed suicide as a result of depression. Additionally, he shares no information regarding whether he has any siblings or not. We will update this information once it’s available.
David Axelrod Education
Upon completion of his high school education at New York’s Stuyvesant High School, he went on to join the University of Chicago. After completing his undergraduate studies, he became its alumnus with a major in political science. Also, while he was a sophomore, he wrote for the Hyde Park Herald where he covered politics, and earned an internship at the Chicago Tribune.
David Axelrod Career
Axelrod serves CNN as the host of The Axe Files, a podcast. The podcast is jointly produced by CNN and his institute. Also, he serves as director of the University of Chicago’s independent Institute of Politics. He joined the network in 2015 as a Senior Political Commentator. Further, he served as the chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama.
After completing his undergraduate studies, he was employed by the Chicago Tribune. While there, he broadcasted national, state, and local politics for 8 years. Also, he served as the youngest political writer in 1981. When he was 27, he served as the City Hall Bureau Chief and a political columnist for the paper. Moreover, he left the paper to work as communications director on the campaign of U.S. Senator, Paul Simon in 1984.
Ultimately, he was raised to serve as co-campaign manager. In 1985, he generated the political consultancy firm, Axelrod & Associates. Furthermore, in 1987 he served on the triumphant reelection campaign of Harold Washington who was Chicago’s first black mayor. Simultaneously, he spearheaded Simon’s campaign for the 1988 Democratic Presidential nomination. Thus establishing his experience in working with black politicians.
Later, he later served as an essential player in alike mayoral crusades of black candidates. For example, John F. Street in Philadelphia, Dennis Archer in Detroit, Michael R. White in Cleveland, Anthony A. Williams in Washington, D.C., and Lee P. Brown in Houston. Withal, is an adept strategist for the former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and tailors himself as a “specialist in urban politics.”
The Economist mentions that he specializes in “packaging black candidates for white voters”. Forbye, in 1990, Axelrod was employed to be the media consultant for the all but official re-election campaign of Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt. Nonetheless, Goldschmidt declared in February that he would not pursue re-election. Moreover, he was commissioned by the Liberal Party of Ontario.
He was commissioned to assist Dalton McGuinty and his party in 2002 to be appointed into government in the October 2003 poll. His impact on Ontario was perceived via the victorious Liberal appeal to “working families.” And, keep stress on positive policy disparity such as invalidating corporate tax breaks to fund education and health.
In 2004, Axelrod served on John Edwards’ presidential campaign. Even if he forfeited his accountability for generating ads, he progressed as the campaign’s spokesman. Concerning Edwards’ failed 2004 presidential campaign, he has stated, “I have a whole lot of respect for John, but at some point, the candidate has to close the deal and—I can’t tell you why—that never happened with John.”
Plus, he served as a consultant for Exelon, an Illinois-region mileage that controlled the biggest fleet of nuclear reactors in the United States. Else, he served as a contributor to an op-ed to the Chicago Tribune in defense of patronage succeeding two top officials in the administration of longtime client, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s arrest. His arrest was for what federal prosecutors described as “pervasive fraud” in City Hall raises and employment.
In 2006, he served as a consultant for various crusades. For example, the triumphant campaigns of Eliot Spitzer in New York’s administrative poll and Deval Patrick in Massachusetts’s gubernatorial election. Also, he served as the chief political adviser for Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair U.S. Representative, Rahm Emanuel for the U.S. House of Representatives elections. In which, the Democrats gained 31 seats.
Further, he served as an Adjunct Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University along with Professor Peter Miller. While there, he taught an undergraduate class dubbed, Campaign Strategy, analyzing political campaigns, and their strategies. Plus, he gained an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from DePaul University on June 14, 2009.
And, he spoke at the onset exercises of the College of Communication and College of Computing and Digital Media. On a side note, Axelrod initially met Obama in 1992 Bettylu Saltzman, a Chicago Democrat, introduced them. They met as a result of Obama impressing Saltzman at a black voter registration drive that he ran. Axelrod was consulted by Obama prior to delivering a 2002 anti-war speech and asked him to read drafts of his book, The Audacity of Hope.
During the 2008 politics, Axelrod considered d taking a break from politics. This was because five of the candidates; Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, and Tom Vilsack, were past clients. Also, the personal connections between him and Hillary Clinton made it difficult. This is because, she had raised notable funds for epilepsy on behalf of a foundation co-founded by his wife and mother, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE).
Further, his wife voiced that a 1999 conference Clinton gathered to find a cure for the condition was “one of the most important things anyone has done for epilepsy.” Ultimately, Axelrod decided to partake in the Obama campaign and served as chief strategist and media advisor for Obama. Moreover, he told The Washington Post, “I thought that if I could help Barack Obama get to Washington, then I would have accomplished something great in my life.”
Additionally, he added to the key declaration of Obama’s campaign by generating a five-minute Internet video issued on January 16, 2007. Also, he progressed to utilize“man on the street”-design biographical videos to generate a sense of authenticity and intimacy in the political ads. As the Clinton crusade chose a strategy that stressed experience, he assisted to craft the Obama campaign’s chief theme of “change.”
In addition, he was analytic about the Clinton campaign’s positioning and voiced “being the consummate Washington insider is not where you want to be in a year when people want change…[Clinton’s] initial strategic positioning was wrong and kind of played into our hands.” The chief theme of Obama’s campaign played a component in Obama’s victory in the Iowa caucuses.
“Just over half of [Iowa’s] Democratic caucus-goers said change was the No. 1 factor they were looking for in a candidate, and 51 percent of those voters chose Barack Obama,” voiced CNN senior political analyst, Bill Schneider. “That compares to only 19 percent of ‘change’ caucus-goers who preferred Clinton.” Also, he believed that the Clinton crusade misread the significance of the caucus states.
“For all the talent and the money they had over there, they—bewilderingly—seemed to have little understanding for the caucuses and how important they would become,” voiced Axelrod. During the 2008 primary season, Obama secured a majority of the states that utilize the caucus layout. Moreover, Axelrod is attributed with executing a strategy that encourages the participation of people.
Where it is a lesson somewhat drawn from Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign and a personal goal of Barack Obama. He expounds, “When we started this race, Barack told us that he wanted the campaign to be a vehicle for involving people and giving them a stake in the kind of organizing he believed in”. As per Axelrod, making volunteers involved became the legacy of the campaign.
This includes drawing on “Web 2.0” technology and viral media to endorse a grassroots strategy. Obama’s web platform allowed supporters to create, and blog their own personal page, and phone bank from home. Axelrod’s intricate utilization of the Internet assisted Obama to sort under-30 voters and build more than 475,000 donors in 2007, most of whom were Internet donors who contributed under $100 each.
The Obama strategy varied from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which benefited from high name acknowledgments, strong support among established Democratic leaders, and large donors. On November 20, 2008, Obama named him a senior advisor to his administration. His task was to communicate the President’s message in accordance with President Obama, the Obama Administration, speechwriters, and the White House communications team. And, crafting policy.
On January 28, 2011, he left his White House senior advisor post. Further, he served as a top aide to Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Also, he commented that his job as Obama’s chief campaign strategist in the 2012 campaign would be his last job as a political operative. In January 2013, Axelrod established a bipartisan Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, where he serves as director.
On January 23, 2013, La Stampa reported that Axelrod was assisting Italian prime minister Mario Monti with his election campaign. Also, he flew to Italy to meet with Monti ten days earlier. Monti’s coalition became fourth with 10.5% of the vote in the Italian general election in 2013. On February 19, 2013, Axelrod joined NBC News and MSNBC as a senior political analyst. Further, he held the position until September 2015 when he moved to CNN.
Furthermore, in 2014 he had been selected as a senior strategic adviser to the British Labour Party. Where he assisted party leader, Ed Miliband in the run-up to the 2015 general election. To boot, he is the co-founder of AKPD Message and Media, along with Eric Sedler, and operated ASK Public Strategies. Now, dubbed ASGK Public Strategies, which sold in 2009. In February 2015, his book issued, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics issued.
Moreover, in 2018 Axelrod vocally opposed Democratic support for impeachment. Where he argued that if “we “normalize” impeachment as a political tool, it will be another hammer blow to our democracy”
How Much Does David Axelrod Earn?
Axelrod receives an annual income ranging between $30,000 and $90,000.
How Much is David Axelrod Worth?
Through Axelrod’s career as an analyst, he has been able to accumulate a net worth that ranges between $1 Million and $ 5 Million.
David Axelrod Foreclosure Scandal
In 2010, during the publicization of the 2010 United States foreclosure crisis, Axelrod was conventionally criticized for minimizing the size of the calamity in his comments to the press. Where he told the audience of CBS News’s Face the Nation that the Obama administration’s “hope is this moves rapidly and that this gets unwound very, very quickly” and that he’s “not sure that a national moratorium” is called for since “there are in fact valid foreclosures that probably should go forward.” Primarily, Axelrod made the statement succeeding the voluntary foreclosures and evictions suspension of various banks in order to investigate improprieties.
David Axelrod Podcast/ Retirement
In 2015, Axelrod began serving as a host on a podcast dubbed, The Axe Files. The podcast is a series of in-depth discussions and interviews with multiple political figures. Moreover, in June 2019 he debuted the podcast, Hacks on Tap with co-host Mike Murphy. The podcast is a show where they discussed news and updates from the 2020 presidential campaign trail.
In 2022, Axelrod announced his aim to retire his position as director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics to become a senior fellow and chair of its advisory board, effective on January 2023. The University of Chicago President, Paul Alivisatos stated during his tenure that “David’s leadership of the IOP has driven its incredible growth and success over the past decade.”
David Axelrod Twitter, and Instagram
Axelrod is active on his social media accounts. He has about 1.4M followers on his Twitter account and around 12.9K followers on his Instagram account.