Daniels '71 spurs talk of potential bid for presidency

On Feb. 22, Daniels told The Washington Post that he would “keep open the door to a possible candidacy.” Two months earlier, Daniels had explicitly told the Post that he was not interested in running for president.

On Feb. 23, Daniels explained that he did not intend to run but was concerned about the party’s direction.

“The simple fact is I don’t plan to do; I don’t expect to do it; I really don’t want to do it,” he said, The Hill reported. “I’m just very concerned about the condition and direction of the country and would like to have some input into a constructive Republican alternative.”

Daniels’ press secretary, Jane Jankowski, declined to comment for this article.

If Daniels does decide to run for president, he would follow in the paths of former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley ’65, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2000, and Ralph Nader ’55, who ran for president on the Green Party ticket in 1996 and 2000 and as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008. Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, was the last alumnus who served as president.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the Wilson School, Daniels began working as an aide to U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), eventually serving as his chief of staff from 1977 to 1982, and he received a degree from Georgetown Law School in 1979. He served as chief political advisor to former president Ronald Reagan in 1985. After stints as an executive at the Hudson Institute and Eli Lilly and Company, Daniels returned to government in 2001 to direct the Office of Management and Budget under former president George W. Bush.

Daniels was elected governor in 2004 in his first bid for office, and he balanced the state budget for the first time in eight years in 2005.

He won reelection in 2008 by an 18-percentage-point margin, receiving more votes than any previous candidate for office in his state. The same year, President Obama carried the state as a Democrat.

As governor, Daniels also created the state’s Office of Management and Budget and signed a bill creating the Healthy Indiana Plan, which provided health insurance to more than 100,000 uninsured people.

Daniels has stated that he will not take any preliminary steps toward the nomination, as his main focus is Indiana.

“I’ve got my hands full, trying to keep things glued together and take care of people who are sideswiped here, do the most essential things in state government, keep ourselves fiscally above water,” Daniels told the Post.

Other potential contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination include former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

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Daniels was named one of the eight best public officials in 2008 by Governing magazine. He also received the 2008 Urban Innovator Award from the Manhattan Institute.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the year in which Sen. Bill Bradley ’65 ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.