Bill Weld is an American blue blood; yet, he cuts against the grain.
Weld was the first Republican to be elected Governor in Massachusetts in 20 years. Now, he’s running for President again—this time as a Republican.
In 2016, he left the Republican Party to become the Libertarian Party running mate of former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson. Johnson and Weld received nearly 4.5 million popular votes, the best-ever showing for a Libertarian ticket and the best showing for any third-party ticket since 1996.
After returning to the Republican Party, Weld announced on April 15, 2019, that he would challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primaries.
It Takes A Prosecutor
Prior to being elected as Governor in 1990 and again in 1994, Weld served seven years in President Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department, as Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division in Washington, DC, and as the United States Attorney for Massachusetts, where he won 109 convictions in 111 prosecutions of public corruption.
Running against Don Trump in the GOP primary appears to be a new format for old prosector. I wish him well in this pursuit. “And justice for all” are words I, and millions of Americans, want to believe in.
Today, A Mayflower Republican Would Be Welcome
Weld was born in Smithtown, New York. The Weld family has an impressive legacy. His ancestor William Floyd was a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. His ancestor Edmund Weld was among the earliest students (Class of 1650) at Harvard College; eighteen other Welds have attended Harvard, and two Harvard buildings are named for the family.
Weld married Susan Roosevelt Weld, a great-granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt, on June 7, 1975. Susan Roosevelt Weld worked as 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.
New Hampshire Voters Could Change the Course of History
But does Bill Weld have a chance in hell of beating Don Trump in the New Hampshire primary and beyond?
As a New Englander from the state next door, and a failing GOP, Weld could win New Hampshire and if he does that, there’s a pathway for him, an opening, small as it may be.
According to RealClear Politics, Weld hopes that in crossover primary states (of which there are 20) his positions will attract independents and even Democrats who are not satisfied with the other options on the table. Weld claims to have won independent voters at a 6-to-1 clip over opponents in his two races for governor.
