David Axelrod Biography
David Axelrod is a media personality serving as Senior Political Commentator at CNN. He is also the host of The Axe Files. Additionally, he serves as the director of the non-partisan University of Chicago Institute of Politics. Previously, he was the chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama.
David Axelrod Age
He was born on February 22, 1955 in Lower East Side, New York, United States. He is 66 years old as at 2021.
David Axelrod Height and Weight
He is 6 feet and 2 inches tall (1.88m) and weighs 72kgs.
David Axelrod Nationality
Axelrod is an American Citizen.
David Axelrod Education Background
Axelrod attended Stuyvesant High School in New York and graduated in 1972. Between 1972-1976, he attended the University of Chicago where he majored in Political Science. During an interview he said; “I was a student at The University of Chicago, and I came there because Chicago was an interesting political town.”
David Axelrod Parents and Siblings
Born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, David grew up in Stuyvesant Town area. He is the son of Myril Bennett (née Davidson) and Joseph Axelrod. His mother was a journalist at PM, a liberal-leaning 1940s newspaper, and later an advertising executive at Young & Rubicam. While his father was a psychologist and avid baseball fan. At the age of eleven, he migrated from Eastern Europe to the United States. He also attended Public School 40 in Manhattan.
David was raised in a liberal Jewish family. He had his bar mitzvah ceremony at the Brotherhood Synagogue in Manhattan. However, when he was eight years old his parents separated.
In 2021, Axelrod disclosed in a CNN op-ed that his father committed suicide. He suffered from severe clinical depression which led to his suicide. David was 20 years old at the time of his father’s death.
Axelrod has a sister named Joan Lehrich.
David Axelrod Wife and Kids
David married his wife Susan Landau in 1979. The couple first met while at the University of Chicago where Susan was studying business. She is the daughter of Richard L. Landau, a research doctor.
Axelrod and his wife have three children. A daughter, Lauren born in 1981 and two sons; Ethan and Michael. Lauren was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was seven months old. Her father described her as having had brutal seizures, requiring a constantly changes regimen of medications for some time. This left her developmentally disabled, but nevertheless mainstreamed in school. For a few years after high school, the family struggled to find programs that would keep her happy and fulfilled, but were able to place her in Misericordia, a large dormitory-style group home in 2002, where she leads an active life.
As of 2021, Axelrod advocates for a flexible, mixed approach to group homes and support environments for people like his daughter, in contrast to the common approach of exclusively moving toward smaller group homes.
David Axelrod CNN
Axelrod is a veteran of politics and journalism and the former chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama.
Currently, Axelrod serves as director of the University of Chicago’s non-partisan Institute of Politics. He is also the host of The Axe Files, a podcast jointly produced by CNN and his institute. Previously, he was a political writer for the Chicago Tribune and media strategist behind 150 state, local and national campaigns. He is also the author of The New York Times best-selling memoir, “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”
David Axelrod Barack Obama
Axelrod served as senior advisor to President Barack Obama, senior advisor to the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition, senior strategist to Barack Obama’s historic campaign for the presidency in 2008 and his 2012 re-election campaign. Today he serves as the Director, Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago and is a senior political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He was recently inducted into The American Association of Political Consultants’ Hall of Fame.
During his time at the White House, Axelrod was the Administration’s most frequent presence on the influential Sunday talk shows including NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday and CNN’s State of the Union. He also appeared several times on The Tonight Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Late Show with David Letterman just to name a few.
From 1988 to 2008, Axelrod was the founder and senior partner at the consulting firm AKPD Message and Media, based in Chicago. In that capacity, he managed media strategy and communications for more than 150 local, state and national campaigns, with a focus on progressive candidates and causes.
In 2006, Axelrod ran the independent expenditure media program for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, helping Democrats regain the majority in the House of Representatives. That same year, Axelrod served as media adviser to Deval Patrick, who was elected Massachusetts’s first Democratic governor in 16 years and the state’s first-ever African American governor. In 2004, when President Obama was a member of the Illinois State Senate, Axelrod helped him defeat a primary field of six other Democrats and go on to a landslide win in his U.S. Senate campaign.
Before entering politics in 1984, Axelrod spent eight years as a reporter for The Chicago Tribune, where he covered national, state and local politics. In 1981, he became the youngest political writer and columnist in the paper’s history. He also served as the Tribune’s City Hall bureau chief.
Active in charitable work in Chicago, Axelrod has supported Special Olympics and Misericordia. In 1998, he and his wife, Susan, helped found Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE), which has raised more than $26 million so far for scientists searching for a cure.
David Axelrod Awards
In 2019 he was awarded the Mental Health Humanitarian Award. The award honors persons who have contributed to the William James College motto “Meeting the need” and “Making a Difference”. There is only one recipient of the award every year.
David Axelrod Salary and Net Worth
He earns an average salary of $100,000 per year. He also has an estimated net worth ranging between $1-$5 million.
David Axelrod Social Media Accounts
View this post on Instagram
Also Read: Carl Azuz
