William Floyd Weld was born on July 31,1945 and is an American attorney, businessman, author, and politician who served as the 68th Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997.
51 Facts About Bill Weld
2.
Bill Weld 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.
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Bill Weld 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.
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Bill Weld's father, David, was an investment banker; his mother, Mary Nichols Bill Weld, was a descendant of William Floyd, a signatory of the US Declaration of Independence.
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Bill Weld's siblings are Francis "Tim" Weld, David Weld, and Anne.
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Bill Weld began his legal career as a junior counsel on the US House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry staff during the 1974 impeachment process against Richard Nixon.
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Bill Weld contributed to the groundbreaking "Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment" report, which detailed the historical basis and standards for impeachment of a president.
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Bill Weld worked on researching whether impoundment of appropriated funds was an impeachable offense.
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Bill Weld's experience serving on the impeachment inquiry staff sparked his interest in criminal law.
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Bill Weld returned afterward to Massachusetts, where he ran unsuccessfully for Massachusetts Attorney General in 1978.
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Bill Weld lost to Democratic incumbent Francis X Bellotti by 1,532,835 votes to 421,417.
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In 1981, Weld was recommended to President Reagan by Rudolph W Giuliani, then Associate US Attorney General, for appointment as the US Attorney for Massachusetts.
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Bill Weld gained national recognition in fighting public corruption: he won 109 convictions out of 111 cases.
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Bill Weld was responsible for supervising all federal prosecutions, including those investigated by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as the work of the 93 US Attorneys.
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From 1988 to 1990, Bill Weld was a senior partner at Hale and Dorr.
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In 1990, Bill Weld announced his candidacy for Governor of Massachusetts to replace the out-going Michael Dukakis.
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Governor Bill Weld is generally considered to have been a moderate or liberal Republican Governor.
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Bill Weld is pro-choice and helped to introduce legislation to make it easier for women to access abortion procedures.
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Bill Weld said he would recognize same-sex marriages that might be performed out of state following a court decision in Hawaii.
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Bill Weld signed into law the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 that created the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System and the legal framework for charter schools in Massachusetts.
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One of the social services Bill Weld opposed and eventually ended was a program providing higher education to prison inmates.
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Bill Weld worked to expand Medicaid access by requesting more federal funding and, then, allowing more residents to qualify for the plan to both solve budget problems and increase access to health care in the state.
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Bill Weld carried all but five towns in the whole state, even carrying Boston.
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On November 30,1995, Bill Weld announced that he would challenge incumbent Democratic Senator John Kerry in the 1996 election.
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Bill Weld's nomination stalled after Senate Foreign Relations committee Chairman Jesse Helms refused to hold a hearing on the nomination, effectively blocking it.
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Bill Weld resigned the governorship on July 29,1997, to devote his full attention to campaigning for the ambassadorship, even though few thought he would be successful; there was speculation that he was really resigning because he had become tired of serving as governor.
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Between 2007 and 2011, Bill Weld was a lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon, CNX Gas Corporation, Sony Electronics and shoemaker New Balance.
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At the private equity firm, Bill Weld later "reduced his role to a senior advisor while considering a run for New York governor" in 2005.
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In 2012, Bill Weld moved to the Boston law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, becoming a partner there and a principal with the firm's government relations affiliate, ML Strategies LLC.
30.
From January to October 2005, Bill Weld was chief executive of Decker College in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Bill Weld's term ended as the college was closing under bankruptcy protection following a disagreement with the US Department of Education about accreditation of its construction-related courses and online instruction.
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In December 2005, Bill Weld received the backing of the Republican county chairs of New York State during a county chairs meeting.
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Bill Weld reportedly offered his chief rival for the nomination, former Republican Assembly leader John Faso, the chance to join his ticket as a candidate for lieutenant governor, an offer Faso reportedly declined.
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Bill Weld formally announced his withdrawal from the race the following day and returned to private life.
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Bill Weld publicly endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for the presidency on January 8,2007; he was a co-chairman for Romney's campaign in New York State.
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Bill Weld personally made a donation of $2,100, the maximum allowed per person per election at the time.
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Bill Weld was active in campaigning for Romney in New Hampshire, where both governors have been known to travel together.
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Bill Weld went on to endorse Barack Obama over John McCain in the general election.
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In February 2016, Bill Weld endorsed Ohio Governor John Kasich for the Republican presidential nomination.
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On May 17,2016, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party's 2012 presidential nominee and the leading candidate for its 2016 nomination, announced his selection of Bill Weld to be his choice for running mate.
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Together, Johnson and Weld were the first presidential ticket to consist of two Governors since the 1948 election when Thomas Dewey of New York ran as a Republican with Earl Warren of California and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina ran as a States' Rights Democrat with Fielding L Wright of Mississippi.
42.
On January 17,2019, Bill Weld rejoined the Republican Party, increasing speculation that he would run for president.
43.
On February 14,2019, Bill Weld announced that he was launching a presidential exploratory committee for the 2020 Republican primary, against incumbent Republican President Donald Trump.
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Bill Weld is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Bill Weld co-chaired its Independent Task Force on North America, which studied the liberalization of markets and free trade between the US, Canada, and Mexico.
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Bill Weld serves on the board of directors of Acreage Holdings.
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In February 2013, Bill Weld publicly supported legal recognition for same-sex marriage in an amicus brief submitted to the US Supreme Court.
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In January 2019, Bill Weld changed his party affiliation back to Republican, in preparation for his presidential run as a Republican.
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Bill Weld sits on the bipartisan advisory board of States United Democracy Center.
50.
Bill Weld married Susan Roosevelt Bill Weld, a great-granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt, on June 7,1975.
51.
Susan Roosevelt Bill Weld was a professor at Harvard University specializing in ancient Chinese civilization and law, and she later served as General Counsel to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.