Background

William F. Weld was born on July 31, 1945, in Smithtown, New York, United States. He is a son of David and Mary Blake (Nichols) Weld. Weld's ancestor Edmund Weld was among the earliest students at Harvard College. Two Harvard buildings are named after the family. He has two brothers, Francis "Tim" Weld, David Weld and a sister Anne (married name Collins). His maternal grandfather was the ichthyologist and ornithologist John Treadwell Nichols, and his first cousin is the novelist John Nichols.

Education

William F. Weld attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. He then studied at Harvard University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in classics in 1966 and a Juris Doctor degree in 1970. Weld also studied economics at University College and received a diploma in international economics with distinction in 1967.

Career

William F. Weld started his career as a law clerk at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1970. In 1971, he started to work as a legal associate at the law firm Hill & Barlow in Boston. He held this post until 1981. Part of his duties with the firm included serving as an associate minority counsel for the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Impeachment Inquiry, during its investigation of the Watergate scandal.

In 1981, Weld was appointed the United States attorney for Massachusetts under Republican President Ronald Reagan. He gained national recognition in fighting public corruption. He served until 1986 when he assumed the position of an assistant United States attorney general at the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division. Weld was responsible for supervising all federal prosecutions, including those investigated by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration. In 1988, he left the Department of Justice in protest of improper conduct by United States Attorney General Edwin Meese.

William F. Weld served as a senior partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP from 1988 to 1990. In 1990, he defeated Democrat John Silber in the general election for Governor of Massachusetts. In 1993, Weld approved the Massachusetts Education Reform Act. The legislation doubled state funding for K-12 public education and created standardized benchmarks for student success across the state. Besides, the bill also gave the board of education the authority to develop curriculum and instructional standards. According to a survey conducted in 1994, 83% of those polled rated the state's business climate as good or excellent—up from only 33% at the beginning of Weld's term. The state's unemployment rate fell by more than 3 percentage points during his first term, from 9.6% in 1991 to 6.4% in 1994. Governor Weld was credited with improving the business climate in Massachusetts by reducing taxes and state regulations on business. In 1994, Weld won reelection with 71% of the vote.

On November 30, 1995, William F. Weld announced that he would challenge incumbent Democratic Senator John Kerry in the 1996 election. The 1996 United States Senate election in Massachusetts took place on November 5, 1996. Senator John Kerry won re-election to a third term over Republican Bill Weld, the Governor of Massachusetts. William F. Weld was nominated to become United States Ambassador to Mexico by President Bill Clinton in 1997. However, his nomination stalled after Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms refused to hold a hearing on the nomination. On July 29, 1997 Weld resigned the governorship and concentrated on campaigning for the ambassadorship. After an intensive six-week battle, Weld conceded defeat and withdrew his nomination on September 15, 1997.

William F. Weld was a partner in the Boston and Manhattan offices of the law firm McDermott Will & Emery from 1997 to 2001. He also worked as head of the New York office from 2000 to 2001. In 2001, he took up a post of a Senior advisor at Leeds Equity Partners . Weld also served as Senior Advisor to the Chair of Ivanhoe Capital Corporation, a private holding company headquartered in British Columbia. In 2012, Weld moved to the Boston law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo and became a partner there and a principal with the firm's government relations affiliate, ML Strategies LLC. He also served as the chief executive of Decker College from January to October 2005.

William F. Weld entered the race for governor of New York in 2005 but lost the nomination to his competitor John Faso. In 2016, he was running for Vice President of the United States together with Gary Johnson. Despite polling higher than any third-party campaign Johnson and Weld were excluded from the debates controlled by the Commission on Presidential Debates. On February 14, 2019, Weld announced that he was launching a presidential exploratory committee for the 2020 Republican primary, against incumbent Republican President Donald Trump. On Monday, April 15, 2019, Weld announced his candidacy for President of the United States.

William F. Weld wrote thrillers and works of historical fiction. He published his first book Mackerel by Moonlight in 1999. Weld wrote his next book Big Ugly in 2002. His most recent novel Stillwater was published in 2003.

Achievements

• William F. Weld is an American attorney, businessman, and Republican politician. He served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and the 68th Governor of Massachusetts. He is also famous for his books Mackerel by Moonlight and Big Ugly.
  
  As a U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts he expanded an ongoing public corruption investigation of the administration of Boston Mayor Kevin White. During his fight against corruption, he won 109 convictions out of 111 cases. While assistant attorney general, Weld worked on the apprehension of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. As governor of Massachusetts, Weld oversaw six upgrades for the state's bond ratings.
  
  Now, Weld is running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2020.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Stillwater: A Novel

    (In 1938, as the inhabitants of a small valley prepare for...)

    2003
  • Mackerel by Moonlight

    (An unusual combination of suspense and political humor ex...)

    1999
  • Big Ugly

    (Just elected to the Senate, ex-prosecutor Terry Mullally ...)

    2002

Politics

William F. Weld served as Republican governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. During this period he supported the adoption of a gun control bill in Massachusetts that included limits on gun purchases under age 21, as well as prohibiting certain types of weapons, which was not ultimately passed. He signed an executive order to recognize domestic partnership rights for same-sex couples and signed into law legislation protecting the rights of gay and lesbian students. Weld launched a successful effort to privatize many state's human services, laying off thousands of state employees. Besides, he worked to expand Medicaid access by requesting more federal funding. He supported tax cuts, implementing more than a dozen during his time.

Weld publicly endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for the presidency on January 8, 2007. He was active in campaigning for Romney in New Hampshire and endorsed Romney in the 2012 presidential election. He also went on to endorse Barack Obama over John McCain in the general election. He supported the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal. He endorsed Ohio Governor John Kasich for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

In 2016, William F. Weld became the Libertarian Party running mate of former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson. Throughout 2017 and 2018, he appeared at several state Libertarian Party conventions and endorsed various Libertarian candidates in the 2018 United States elections. Weld returned to the Republican Party in April 2019, when he announced that he would challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primaries. Weld's campaign is being managed by Jennifer Horn and Stuart Stevens. The slogan of this campaign is "America Deserves Better".

Weld publicly supported legal recognition for same-sex marriage in an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. Besides, he is pro-choice and supports legal access to abortion. He wants broader access for visas and working permits. Weld also supports the US rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and believes in climate change and the United States' need to act on countering its effects. He wants to increase tax credits for lower-income Americans. Weld has proposed to drastically reduce military spending, withdraw American forces from foreign engagements, and refocus American politics on domestic issues primarily.

Views

Quotations: "I think the government has a major role to play in helping us with the pursuit of happiness."

"I think coercive taxation is theft, and government has a moral duty to keep it to a minimum."

"The best preparation for work is not thinking about work, talking about work, or studying for work: it is work."

"It's not good for government to tell people that the world owes them a living and that things are free."

"I dare say that a majority of the American people think that having a fair hearing on an issue of importance in our relations with Mexico is extremely important to our national interest, as well as theirs."

In the nineteenth century, slavery was the greatest wrong, and government never stood so tall as when it was redressing that wrong."

"One thing I did do as governor in Massachusetts was to greatly increase the earned income tax credit, which helps the working poor. I probably would do more of that because we don't need to have people making $29,000 a year who have a family. If that sounds like attacking income inequality, that's because it is."

Membership

William F. Weld is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He co-chaired its Independent Task Force on North America, which studied the liberalization of markets and free trade between the US, Canada, and Mexico. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, Boston Bar Association and American Bar Association. He also serves on the board of directors of Acreage Holdings.

Personality

Physical Characteristics: William Floyd Weld has blond hair and blue eyes. His height is six foot four (1.93 meters).

Quotes from others about the person

• GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis: Governor William Weld represents what is needed and has been missing within the Republican Party: a campaign message about acceptance for all marginalized communities, including LGBTQ people.
  
  The Boston Globe: Weld has been by far the most visible figure in the prosecution of financial institutions.

Connections

William F. Weld married Susan Roosevelt on June 7, 1975. The marriage produced five children: David Minot, Ethel Derby, Mary Blake, Quentin Roosevelt and Frances Wylie. William and Susan divorced in 2002. In 2003, William F. Weld married Leslie Marshall.

Father:

David

Mother:

Mary Blake Nichols

ex-wife:

Susan Roosevelt Weld

Susan Roosevelt Weld is a former professor at Harvard specializing in ancient Chinese civilization and law.

Wife:

Leslie Marshall Weld

Leslie Marshall Weld is an American journalist, magazine editor and novelist.

Son:

David Minot Weld

David Minot Weld is a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Daughter:

Ethel Derby Weld

Daughter:

Mary Blake Weld

Son:

Quentin Roosevelt Weld

Son:

Frances Wylie Weld

Brother:

Francis Weld

Sister:

Anne Collins

Brother:

David Weld