Bill de Blasio : Net Worth, Family, Wife, Education, Children, Age, Biography and Political Career

Bill de Blasio is an American politician serving as the 109th mayor of New York City since 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New York City Public Advocate from 2010 to 2013.

De Blasio was born in Manhattan and raised primarily in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated from New York University and Columbia University before brief stints working as a campaign manager for Charles Rangel and Hillary Clinton. De Blasio started his career as an elected official on the New York City Council, representing the 39th district in Brooklyn from 2002 to 2009. After serving one term as public advocate, he was elected mayor of New York City in 2013 and reelected in 2017.

De Blasio's policy initiatives have included new de-escalation training for police officers, reduced prosecutions for cannabis possession, implementation of police body cameras, and ending the post-9/11 surveillance program of Muslim residents. In his first term as mayor, he implemented a free universal pre-kindergarten program in the city. De Blasio has called attention to what he calls stark economic inequality in New York City, which he described as a "tale of two cities" during his first campaign. He has supported socially liberal and progressive policies in regard to the city's economy, urban planning, public education, police relations, and privatization.

De Blasio ran in the Democratic primaries for the 2020 presidential election. After registering low poll numbers and failing to qualify for the third round of primary debates, he suspended his campaign on September 20, 2019, and endorsed Bernie Sanders five months later.

Bill de Blasio Net Worth

Bill de Blasio Net Worth is $ 3 Million in 2021.

Bill de Blasio Family

Bill de Blasio was born Warren Wilhelm Jr. on May 8, 1961. While he did not grow up in New York City, his parents drove from their home in Norwalk, Connecticut, to Manhattan's Doctors Hospital for his birth. He is the third son of Maria Angela and Warren Wilhelm. He changed his name to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm in 1983 and to Bill de Blasio in 2001 to honor his maternal family and to reflect his alienation from his father. De Blasio has two older brothers, Steven and Donald. His mother was of Italian heritage, and his father was of German, English, French, and Scots-Irish ancestry. His paternal grandparents were Donald Wilhelm, of Ohio and Nina, of Iowa. His maternal grandfather, Giovanni, was from Sant'Agata de' Goti, Benevento, and his grandmother, Anna, was from Grassano, Matera. His paternal uncle, Donald George Wilhelm Jr., worked for the Central Intelligence Agency in Iran and ghostwrote the memoir of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran.

His mother, Maria de Blasio, attended Smith College, served in the Office of War Information during World War II and authored The Other Italy: The Italian Resistance in World War II (1988). His father, a Yale University graduate, worked as a contributing editor at Time magazine and also served in World War II. In 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the Pacific War. During the 82-day Battle of Okinawa, a grenade detonated below his left foot, and his leg was later amputated below the knee. After receiving a Purple Heart, he married Maria in 1945, and became a budget analyst for the federal government. During the 1950s, at the height of the Red Scare, both Maria and Warren were accused of having a "sympathetic interest in Communism". Soon afterward, the family moved to Connecticut, where Warren became Texaco's chief international economist, commuting to Manhattan by train. Maria also commuted to her public relations job at the Italian consulate.

In 1966, the family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, when Warren was offered a job at Arthur D. Little and de Blasio began kindergarten. Bill and his brother Donald were then raised by Maria and her extended family. Of his early childhood, de Blasio said, "my mother and father broke up very early on in the time I came along, and I was brought up by my mother's family—that's the bottom line—the de Blasio family." When de Blasio was 18, his father committed suicide while suffering from incurable lung cancer.

Bill de Blasio Wife and Children

De Blasio and his wife, activist and poet Chirlane McCray, met while both were working for Mayor Dinkins' administration and married in 1994. The couple honeymooned in Cuba in violation of a US travel ban. They lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, before moving into Gracie Mansion, the traditional residence of New York City mayors. They have two children: Dante, a graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School who graduated from Yale University in 2019 and Chiara, a student at Santa Clara University in California.

Bill de Blasio Career and Achievement

In 1984, de Blasio worked for the Urban Fellows Program at the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice. In 1987, shortly after completing graduate school at Columbia, de Blasio was hired to work as a political organizer by the Quixote Center in Maryland. In 1988, he traveled with the Quixote Center to Nicaragua for 10 days to help distribute food and medicine during the Nicaraguan Revolution. De Blasio was an ardent supporter of the ruling socialist government, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which was opposed by the Reagan administration at the time. After returning from Nicaragua, de Blasio moved to New York City, where he worked for a nonprofit organization focused on improving health care in Central America. He continued to support the Sandinistas in his spare time and joined a group called the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, which held meetings and fundraisers for the Sandinista political party. De Blasio's introduction to city politics came in 1989, when he worked as a volunteer coordinator for David Dinkins' mayoral campaign. Following the campaign, de Blasio was an aide in City Hall. In 1990, he described himself as an advocate for democratic socialism when asked about his goals for society.

U.S. Representative Charles Rangel tapped de Blasio to be his campaign manager for his successful 1994 reelection bid. In 1997, he was appointed to serve as the regional director for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for New York and New Jersey under the administration of President Bill Clinton. As the tri-state region's highest-ranking HUD official, de Blasio led a small executive staff and took part in outreach to residents of substandard housing. In 1999, he was elected to be a school board member for Brooklyn School District 15. In 2000, he served as campaign manager for Hillary Clinton's successful United States Senate bid.

New York City Council (2002–2009)

Elections

In 2001, de Blasio ran for the New York City Council's 39th district, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Kensington, Park Slope, and Windsor Terrace. He won the crowded primary election with 32% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated Republican Robert A. Bell, 71% to 17%. He was reelected with 72% of the vote in 2002 and with 83% of the vote in 2005.

New York City Public Advocate (2010–2013)

2009 Election

In November 2008, de Blasio announced his candidacy for New York City Public Advocate, entering a crowded field of candidates vying for the Democratic nomination that included former Public Advocate Mark J. Green. The New York Times endorsed de Blasio, praising his efforts to improve public schools and "(help) many less-fortunate New Yorkers with food stamps, housing, and children's health" as a council member. The paper declared de Blasio the best candidate for the job "because he has shown that he can work well with Mayor Bloomberg when it makes sense to do so while vehemently and eloquently opposing him when justified." His candidacy was endorsed by then Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, former Mayor Ed Koch, former Governor Mario Cuomo, and Reverend Al Sharpton.

On September 15, 2009, de Blasio finished first in the Democratic primary, garnering 33% of the vote. He won the runoff primary election on September 29, defeating Green, 62% to 38%. In the November 3 general election, de Blasio defeated Republican Alex Zablocki, 78% to 18%. De Blasio was inaugurated as New York City's third Public Advocate on January 1, 2010. In his inauguration speech he criticized the Bloomberg administration, especially its homelessness and education policies.

Mayor of New York City (2014–Present)

2013 Election

On January 27, 2013, de Blasio announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City in the fall election. The Democratic primary race included nine candidates, among them Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, and former New York City Comptroller and 2009 mayoral nominee Bill Thompson. After Weiner joined the race in April, early polls showed de Blasio in fourth or fifth among the candidates. Despite his poor starting position, de Blasio gained the endorsements of major Democratic clubs, such as the Barack Obama Democratic Club of Upper Manhattan, and New York City's largest trade union, SEIU Local 1199. Celebrities such as Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker endorsed him, as did prominent politicians such as former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and U.S. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. By August, singer Harry Belafonte and actress Susan Sarandon had endorsed de Blasio.

De Blasio gained media attention during the campaign when he and a dozen others, including city councillor Stephen Levin, were arrested while protesting the closing of Long Island College Hospital. De Blasio and Levin were released a few hours later with disorderly conduct summonses. Fellow Democratic mayoral hopefuls Weiner and City Comptroller John Liu were also at the protest but were not arrested.

During his mayoral campaign, de Blasio outlined a plan to raise taxes on residents earning more than $500,000 a year to pay for universal pre-kindergarten programs and to expand after-school programs at middle schools. He also pledged to invest $150 million annually into the City University of New York to lower tuition and improve degree programs. In September 2013, de Blasio voiced his opposition to charter schools, maintaining that their funding saps resources from classes like art, physical education and after-school programs. He outlined a plan to discontinue the policy of offering rent-free space to the city's 183 charter schools and to place a moratorium on the co-location of charter schools in public school buildings.

In August 2013, the de Blasio campaign released a television advertisement featuring de Blasio's then-15-year-old son, Dante, talking about his father's plans to "'really break from the Bloomberg years.'" Time called it "The Ad That Won the New York Mayor's Race", noting that after it ran, "de Blasio built a steady lead that he never relinquished." Quinn was attacked by a number of groups including NYCLASS with their "Anybody But Quinn" campaign, allowing de Blasio to move up in the polls. By mid-August he emerged as the new leader among the Democrats. He reached 43% in a Quinnipiac poll released a week before the primary. Preliminary results of the September 11 primary showed de Blasio with 40.1% of the votes, slightly more than the 40% needed to avoid a runoff.

On September 16, second-place finisher Bill Thompson conceded, citing the unlikelihood of winning a runoff even if uncounted absentee and military ballots pushed de Blasio below the 40% threshold. Thompson's withdrawal made de Blasio the Democratic nominee against Republican Joe Lhota in the general election. Exit polls showed that the issue that most aided de Blasio's primary victory was his unequivocal opposition to "stop and frisk." After the primary, de Blasio was announced as the nominee of the Working Families Party. In the general election, he defeated Lhota in a landslide with 72.2% of the vote. Voter turnout for the election set a new record low of only 24% of registered voters, which The New York Times attributed to the expectation of a landslide in the heavily Democratic city. The campaign finance activities of the de Blasio 2013 committee reportedly became the subject of a federal corruption investigation led by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Other government authorities were also involved in investigations, some of which reportedly overlapped, including whether campaign donors received preferential treatment from City Hall. The investigation ended in March 2017 with no charges.

2017 Election

In 2017, de Blasio won reelection to a second term, defeating Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, 65.2%-27.2%.

2020 Presidential Campaign

On May 16, 2019, de Blasio announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for president after releasing a YouTube video in which he said, "I'm Bill de Blasio, and I'm running for president because it's time we put working people first." He was the first incumbent mayor of New York City to run for president since John Lindsay, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 1972.

During his campaign, de Blasio expressed support for increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. On June 19, 2019, he said, "We have to make sure there is a peace settlement in Afghanistan; it obviously has to involve the Taliban. Until that point, I don't think it's sensible to take out our troops." De Blasio advocated a robot tax and proposed to make large corporations responsible for five years of income tax from jobs that are automated away.

Despite his large margins of victory during his mayoral races, polls found de Blasio to be largely unpopular. The New York Times described his candidacy as a "long shot", citing his low national poll numbers and inconsistent approval ratings in New York City. A May 2019 Quinnipiac University poll of New York City voters found that 76% did not want de Blasio to run for president. An April 2019 poll placed his approval rating at 42% in the city, with 44% of voters disapproving. Just before he suspended his campaign, his approval rating had dropped to 33%, with 58% disapproving.

De Blasio attempted to position himself as a progressive in contrast to the at-the-time front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden. He was hoping to challenge U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, both of whom were seen as leaders of the progressive wing of the Democratic party.

De Blasio's campaign failed to gain traction. He was unable to qualify for Democratic primary debates in September and October, which were seen as necessary events for his campaign to maintain viability. He regularly polled at 0% among Democratic primary voters, including in his home state. After failing to qualify for the third round of primary debates, de Blasio announced the suspension of his campaign on September 20, 2019. On February 14, 2020, de Blasio endorsed Sanders. In October 2021, the New York City Department of Investigations published in a report that "the City has not been reimbursed by the de Blasio Campaign for the travel expenses of the security detail during the Mayor’s presidential campaign, totaling over $300,000."