De Blasio, Bill (1961-…), an American politician, served as mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2022. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
De Blasio was born on May 8, 1961, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. His name at birth was Warren Wilhelm, Jr. Called “Bill” by friends and family, he spent most of his early life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His parents divorced when he was a boy, and he grew closer to his mother’s family, the de Blasios. He formally changed his name to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm in 1983. He changed it again, to Bill de Blasio, in 2001.
De Blasio received a bachelor’s degree from New York University in 1984. He earned a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs in 1987. He then worked for groups seeking to help poor families in Latin America. He joined the staff of New York Mayor David Dinkins, who took office in 1990. De Blasio married Chirlane McCray, a writer and activist, in 1994. The couple, who have two children, announced their separation in 2023.
In 1997, de Blasio was appointed a regional director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1999, he won election to the school board for District 15 in Brooklyn. In 2000, he managed the successful U.S. Senate campaign of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. In 2001, he won election to the New York City Council, representing a section of Brooklyn. He served until 2009, when he was elected public advocate, a high-ranking New York City official.
In the November 2013 election for New York City mayor, de Blasio defeated his Republican opponent, Joe Lhota. De Blasio was sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1, 2014. He was reelected in 2017. In 2019, de Blasio ran a brief, unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination for president. Term limits prevented de Blasio from seeking a third consecutive term as mayor in 2021. Democrat Eric Adams succeeded him as mayor in 2022.
